Archived press release

Call for Government to turn down Hastings road plan

30 November 2004

An alliance of some of the UK's leading transport and environment groups, most of whom are members of the Hastings Alliance [1], has written to Transport Secretary Alistair Darling urging him not to give approval for the £47m Bexhill to Hastings Link Road proposal [2]. The scheme is similar to the Hastings Western Bypass which was rejected by Government in 2001 as being too damaging to the environment. An announcement on whether or not the Government will approve the Link Road is expected within days.

The groups - the Campaign to Protect Rural England (CPRE), CTC (the national cyclists' organisation), Friends of the Earth, the Ramblers Association, the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds, Transport 2000 and the Woodland Trust - have serious concerns about the proposed road, including:

East Sussex County Council has contravened Government guidance by not sufficiently assessing alternative ways of tackling local transport problems, such as minor improvements to the A259 and more investment in public transport and setting up workplace and school travel plans.

The road will still be highly damaging to the environment even though it does not directly cut through the Combe Haven SSSI. The groups argue that the whole of the Combe Haven Valley is a sensitive area, and wildlife and landscape would be affected.

Although congestion would fall on the A259, East Sussex County Council's own modelling shows that congestion on all other roads in the area will be worse in 2023 if the road is built. Some roads in North Hastings would see up to 91% increases in traffic in the planned opening year of 2008.

East Sussex County Council claim the road is an essential part of regeneration plans, but the groups point out that opening up an out of town greenfield site for a business park and housing development puts at risk a renaissance of the town centre.

Environmental and transport campaigners say the road is not needed because there are better, and in many cases cheaper, alternatives to solve traffic problems between Hastings and Bexhill. They believe the county council should instead be:

• Putting more focus on demand management to reduce traffic through workplace, school and college travel plans;

• Building on the success of the quality bus corridor by extending it between the two towns;

• Fast tracking the suggested Metro-style rail services between Ore (to the east of Hastings) and Bexhill;

• Providing better conditions for walking and cycling for example through pedestrian and cycle networks and 20mph zones.

Tony Bosworth of Friends of the Earth said:

"The link road would devastate one of the finest valleys in East Sussex for highly questionable transport and regeneration benefits. The County Council has still not done its homework properly and should be told to go back to the drawing board to find real solutions for Hastings and Bexhill."

Stephen Joseph of Transport 2000 said:

"The case for the road is linked to opening up a greenfield site for development to bring inward investment. Consultants commissioned by the Government and the local councils have shown there is no evidence that businesses will be attracted to the area if this road is built. Recent research by Transport 2000 says that the road could actually undermine efforts to regenerate the area as local businesses might shift from the town centre to the new site".

"This road would threaten the green lung and last place for peace and quiet between Hastings and Bexhill. But it would not only damage the environment and generate traffic, it could also suck the remaining lifeblood out of Hastings town centre. It would be a shot in the foot rather than a shot in the arm."

Paul Hamblin of the Campaign to Protect Rural England said:

"No area of tranquil countryside can be considered safe from the bulldozers if the Government gives the go ahead to this scheme. The Combe Valley can equal the best of the High Weald Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty. Ministers have said they will protect sensitive landscapes from road building, it is now time for their decisions to demonstrate this commitment."[3]

Paul Jefferiss of the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds said:

"The road would be within metres of the Combe Haven SSSI, a crucial habitat for wetland birds. The bittern, a rare reedbed bird,winters on the site. A roadhere risks damaging this wildlife gem forever".

Notes

[1]The Hastings Alliance was set up in 2000 to oppose plans to build two bypasses around Hastings and to campaign for sustainable regeneration in the area. Its members are:

National:

Council for National Parks, Campaign to Protect Rural England, Friends of the Earth, the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds, The Wildlife Trusts, Transport 2000, Sustrans, UK Rivers Network, WWF-UK, the Woodland Trust.

Regional (Hastings, Kent and Sussex):

A27 Action Group, Brighton & Hove & Mid-Sussex FoE, CPRE - Sussex Branch, East Sussex Transport 2000, Friends of the Brede Valley, Hastings FoE, Hastings Open Technology, Hastings Urban Wildlife Group, Lewes District FoE, RailFuture Coastway Group, Rother Environmental Group, Sussex SERA , Sussex Wildlife Trust, Wishing Tree Residents Association

2] The text of the letter follows below.

Dear Secretary of State,

Bexhill to Hastings Link Road

We are writing as representatives of national transport and environment groups, most of whom are members of the Hastings Alliance, to urge you not to provide funding for the Bexhill to Hastings Link Road (BHLR). The road will be highly damaging to the environment and is unlikely to be the most cost effective way of dealing with local transport problems. We do not accept the claim that the road is an essential part of regeneration plans for the area, and believe that opening up a greenfield site for inward investment is likely to undermine sustainable regeneration efforts. Despite the fact that the Bexhill to Hastings Link Road does not go directly through Combe Haven SSSI, we believe that it has many of the disbenefits associated with building the Western Bypass in isolation, which is partly why your predecessor rejected the Bypass proposals three years ago.

The Alliance has written a detailed response to the bid which has been submitted to your Department. This response raises six key areas of concern:

Alternative options
The bid from East Sussex County Council (ESCC) is fundamentally flawed in that it has not sufficiently assessed alternative options for dealing with transport problems, thereby contravening Government guidance to local authorities on submitting bids for major schemes (DfT `Major Schemes in Local Transport Plans').

Environmental impacts
The proposed Bexhill to Hastings Link Road would significantly harm the whole Combe Haven area - its landscape, heritage and wildlife. It will fail to reduce transport noise; worsen air quality for many residents; harm the townscape; and increase emissions of carbon dioxide. We argue that the whole Valley is an environmentally sensitive site and as such your policy of "a strong presumption against new or expanded transport infrastructure which would significantly affect such sites" should be applied.

Regeneration impacts
Opening up an out-of-town business park could seriously undermine regeneration plans. There is no guarantee that inward investment will take place. Weak external demand will lead to pressure to develop piecemeal in response to more local demand. In this case the effect will be simply to displace to the Business Park demand which could have been met by the wide range of existing sites within nearby urban areas, with no net gain of jobs.

Traffic impacts
Although congestion would fall on the A259, ESCC's own figures show that it would be 39% worse on other roads in the area in 2023, compared to 2003 (28% worse than without the BHLR). In addition there is only a slight improvement in overall journey time reliability. No information is provided on the impact of the road on the levels of walking, cycling and public transport usage.

Involvement of the statutory environmental bodies
The council has not taken account of the views of the statutory environmental bodies (SEBs). The clearest evidence for this is that ESCC developed six alternative road routes for public consultation, of which four were unacceptable to the SEBs. Also three of the SEBs were forced into a position where they needed to respond to the consultation routes without seeing any detailed environmental assessment information.

Public consultation
We believe that ESCC's claim of overwhelming support for the road is unjustified. The public consultation newsletter and questionnaire contained no information about non-road alternatives and contained four routes which had already been ruled out by your department as too damaging to the SSSI. A prominent and misleading quote from Hastings MP Michael Foster states that the road will help the towns "without cost to the surrounding countryside". There was only a 2% response rate to the questionnaire and 88% of the respondents were car owners, a disproportionate percentage compared to 66% of Hastings households and 73% of Bexhill households which own cars.

We are aware that there is immense pressure from the local authorities in the area to build this road with public money. Our concern is that they have started from a position that the road is essential as a solution to local traffic problems on the A259 and as a means of regenerating the area, without taking a step back and objectively assessing the best solutions to these problems, as urged by Ministers.

Yours sincerely

Tony Bosworth
Senior Transport Campaigner
Friends of the Earth

On behalf of

Paul Hamblin
Head of Transport and Natural Resources
Campaign to Protect Rural England

Roger Geffen
Campaigns and Policy Manager
CTC - the national cyclists' organisation

Sarah Williams
Countryside Protection Campaigner
Ramblers Association

Paul Jefferiss
Head of Environmental Policy Dept
Royal Society for the Protection of Birds

Stephen Joseph
Executive Director
Transport 2000

Graham Bradley
Public Affairs Officer
Woodland Trust

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Published by Friends of the Earth Trust