Bexhill Town Forum Agenda Item:
16 March 2004
Summary Of Ideas By Dr. J. Thurston On The Roads In And Around Bexhill
Since the Bexhill Town Forum meeting on Tuesday 25 November 2003, there have been some significant developments with more taking place in the very near future. Tesco plc and their lessors, Land Securities plc who own the whole of the Ravenside Business and Retail Park, have been granted planning consent to enlarge the Tesco premises considerably. Work has commenced with the demolition of the Drallim buildings and three houses bordering De La Warr Road. Some minor changes are planned for the Glyne Gap Roundabout and the adjacent part of the De La Warr Road. These changes include the erection of new traffic lights at the entrance to Brett Drive, which will be the main access to these new buildings, and another Pelican Crossing installed opposite the present service area entrance for the stores at the west end of the Ravenside Centre. I believe that these changes will impair the traffic flow along the De La Road considerably - as if they are not bad enough already! I think it would be advisable for the existing bus stops to have lay-bys so that they do not hinder the traffic when passengers are boarding and alighting.
My opinion, for what it is worth, is that the plans have not been nearly bold enough to help the traffic congestion in the area. For my money, the roundabout should be enlarged to allow two streams of traffic to circulate and a new road built across to the Landfill Site at Pebsham. This would take traffic directly towards Queensway by passing under the railway, which would be on an embankment, to connect with Queensway near the reservoir, probably needing another roundabout at the south end of Churchwood Drive. Although this idea would need more land at Glyne Gap, there would be plenty available if the adjacent field were used, which at present is only used for circuses, boot sales etc. I would have thought that there was a good case for buying part of this land. This would be much more expedient in allowing traffic to proceed from the west of our area into Hastings and beyond. With the plans for the present development at Glyne Gap due to start next month, it seems that all this has been kept quiet for the last few months (although I understand that the plans were finalised about two years ago).
The East Sussex County Council have recently issued plans for the link road which all start from the old railway cutting from the bridge under the Ninfield Road at Sidley to the Coombe Haven Valley. This is bound to cause great grief to the present residents of the London Road and Buxton Drive. It will need a large road junction at the beginning of Wrestwood Road. I am also sure that the interference this would cause in this Coombe Haven Valley was a major reason for the cancellation of the Bexhill and West Hastings by-passes. And now they are planning a repeat of the travesty! The Friends of the Earth, the Sussex Wildlife Trust who manage the reed beds and the Nature Park and the Environment Agency who manage the water in the valley, and English Nature, who manage the area of SSSI, will all find that these plans are quite impractical. I am also aware that the residents and farmers at Crowhurst would not approve of any such link.
There are people who think that a link road through this route may be a good solution. However, I think that a by-pass around the north of Sidley, linking the Ninfield Road via Water Mill Lane, Buckholt Lane, Glovers Lane to the proposed new residential development at Worsham and Pebsham Farms and on to Queensway, may be a better alternative. Such a road would need connections with Bexhill, Glyne Gap and St Leonards as well as Eastbourne.
The fiasco in Devonshire Square has made it even more necessary to plan the building of a proper multi-storey car park that, I suggest, would be best built over the railway and electricity sub-station at the western end of the present platforms of Bexhill Station. This could include a new booking hall and office, similar to the one at Polegate, adjacent to the toilets on the north side of Devonshire Square. A taxi rank could also be included. The present station building, which is listed, could be preserved as a library or museum, both of which are needed in Bexhill. The money available to Bexhill area by the Government for regeneration could be very well used to finance this development. This would be a much better use for this kind of money than has been spent on the Devonshire Square fiasco. A scheme of this kind would be very difficult to finance and it may well not be a practical answer. Co-operation between the local authorities, Sainsburys, The Strategic Rail Authority and local businesses, etc., should be able to sort out a solution of this kind. Certainly a new station and a booking hall built on the north side of Devonshire Square with an attached taxi rank and car park for rail users surely must make good business sense.
I think that any ideas to modify the Marina at Bexhill and the crazy idea of building a new hotel adjacent to the De La Warr Pavilion should be abandoned. These schemes would be a complete waste of money and would never be a viable project in business terms. If there were any need for a hotel in Bexhill, one of the chains would have jumped at the idea years ago. Attempts to have a bigger and better hotel will probably fail and have to close just as some hotels in Bexhill have already had to.
I look forward to a good debate on these matters at the Town Forum meeting in Sidley on 16 March. However, it may be necessary to organise a larger public meeting to receive presentations and hear everybody's ideas. This could set the ball in motion.
There are others issues such as renovating and improving our existing roads that need discussion as well. Unfortunately all these discussions take up a lot of time and effort and we really needed the road improvements much earlier. But better late than never!
Dr. John Thurston
btf040316 – Link Road 2