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c/o Ethical Property Company 
9 Park End Street
Oxford
OX1 1HH

Objection to the East Sussex County Council planning application RR/2474/CC

1. Financial cost

The original scheme was costed at £47.3 million, but the most recent estimates are currently standing at £89 million. Judging by other recent road building schemes, final costs are likely to be even higher. This level of expenditure is not justified, considering how the money could be spent elsewhere.

The combined population of Bexhill and Hastings is 125,524 (2001 Census). £89 million equates to £709 for every person across the two towns. By way of contrast, the Sustrans TravelSmart programme costs around £20 per household and has resulted in a 10% to 13% reduction of car trips in several towns across the country .

We believe that a package of “smarter choices” measures, including TravelSmart, school and workplace travel plans, Bike It, car clubs, car sharing, teleworking and teleconferencing would significantly reduce car journeys across the two towns at a fraction of the cost of the proposed road.

A modest sum of say £10 million should be allowed to transform Bexhill and Hastings into Sustainable Travel Demonstration Towns, to include infrastructure for walking, cycling and public transport in addition to the smarter choices outlined above.

2. Carbon dioxide emissions

A comparison of Appraisal Summary Tables for 59 Major Road Schemes shows the Bexhill Hastings Link Road as the second worst road scheme in the whole country, with an estimated net impact of 5420 tonnes of carbon per annum.

Since this road was originally planned, climate change has risen up the political agenda and the Government has a commitment to reduce carbon dioxide emissions across the country by 60% by 2050. This road scheme must be urgently re-assessed in the light of these climate change targets.

A package of sustainable transport measures would significantly reduce carbon dioxide emissions across the two towns at a fraction of the cost. Such measures must be appraised before any further work is undertaken on this unnecessary road scheme .

3. Benefit Cost Ratio

We find it very hard to believe that the BCR can increase from 2.6 to 3.4 when the cost has nearly doubled. However, even if we take at face value the 3.4 figure, this compares very poorly with sustainable transport measures. A recent appraisal of three walking and cycling schemes showed BCRs in the range 14.9 to 29.3 . The full range of alternatives to the building of the new road must be properly assessed as recommended by The Denvil Coombe Practice in their July 2006 report for East Sussex Transport 2000.

One of these alternatives should be the construction of a seafront path for walking and cycling between Glyne Gap and Cinque Ports Way. This provides a safe and convenient alternative to the A259 and is likely to be well used and offer a high BCR. East Sussex County Council have submitted this scheme to the Connect2 lottery programme managed by Sustrans, but they are not willing to commit any funds to this project in the short term. The scheme is estimated at around £600,000 which is a very modest investment compared to a new road. With good promotion and connecting links to the wider community, we believe this route can make a significant contribution to reducing congestion on the A259.

4. North Bexhill Development

We do not believe that the road is required to service the proposed housing and industrial development areas to the North of Bexhill. Indeed, if the development cannot go ahead without the road, we would suggest that the development itself is unsustainable. A more modest development proposal could be serviced with a shorter road linked to the existing network in Bexhill. A package of smarter choice measures planned into the development at the outset would reduce the need to travel by car.

This view is supported by the August 2004 report by Urban & Regional Policy

for East Sussex Transport 2000. The overview concludes that:

“The regeneration argument for BHLR rests primarily upon the opening up of land for a proposed high quality Business Park in North Bexhill. However, this would require inward investment, for which there are many more attractive locations in the region: market demand in this area would be weak regardless of the BHLR. There is other land suitable for expansion of local businesses, and ample capacity for planned housing provision can be provided without BHLR.

“The approach to economic regeneration adopted by SEEDA and currently being carried out by the Hastings/Bexhill Task Force focuses on growing the existing manufacturing base and building on potential strengths in knowledge-based industries and tourism. In this view regenerating the local environment of Hastings/Bexhill and enhancing the quality of life it offers are critical to success. The BHLR and associated business park are at best irrelevant and at worst highly damaging to this vision. Any short-run gain from development would be dwarfed by longer-run increases in traffic and car-dependency…”

5. Impact on public transport

The existing rail line offers a viable alternative to the A259 for a significant number of journeys. With good promotion, increased frequency and new stations, there is excellent potential to transfer passengers from road to rail in this corridor. Construction of the new road would divert traffic away from the coastal road and is likely to undermine the market for rail.

Stagecoach Buses have stated that they do not want to run a commercial bus service on the new road. This suggests that there is limited demand for travel within the proposed Link Road corridor.

6. Conclusion

We urge the County Council and Government to cancel this expensive road scheme and fully appraise the alternative options:

• on-line improvements to the A259 to provide bus priority measures
• car parking control and pricing measures
• TravelSmart and other smarter choices measures
• seafront shared path for walking and cycling
• improved rail services and new stations
• Bexhill and Hastings as Sustainable Travel Demonstration Towns.

Simon Pratt, Regional Manager, Sustrans South East

4 July 2007