BHLR: FINALE?
In what could be the final act in the long drawn out farce of the Bexhill to Hastings Link Road (BHLR) project, the promoters – East Sussex County Council – is preparing its ‘best and final bid for funding to the government. This will be published for all to see on the 9th September. We then have six weeks to make our comments and our own submissions.
The Hastings Alliance and its member organisations will be reading through the bid document to see just how ESCC can justify a spend of £100m on a project that is founded in fantasy and which fails to tick any boxes at all.
THE NEED TO MAKE OUR VOICE HEARD
The government’s Department for Transport (DfT) will be noting local levels of opposition to, as well as support for the scheme, and the Hastings Alliance and its all of its members and friends will be making it crystal clear that an overwhelming number of people in Bexhill, Hastings, Crowhurst and wider East Sussex do NOT want this extravagant, costly, environmentally damaging and irrelevant road carrying 30,000 vehicles a day through Combe Haven valley.
WHAT WE’LL DO
The Hastings Alliance will be making a submission to the DfT on its
View of Combe Haven from below Bynes Farm
alternatives to BHLR. We will challenge the conclusions of the promoters, and together with experts in the fields of transport and planning, will publish this in late September/early October and send it to government, press/TV and radio stations, and ESCC.
We will also have printed 2,500 postcards with a message to transport minister Norman Baker telling him that WE DON”T WANT THE BEXHILL TO HASTINGS LINK ROAD and describing our alternatives. With your help, these will be filled in individually by members of the public and ourselves and delivered, possibly in sacks! We will canvas the public in Bexhill and Hastings.
We will also HAVE FUN!
DIARY DATE:
CELEBRATE COMBE HAVEN VALLEY FAMILY EVENT – SATURDAY SEPTEMBER 24TH
We don’t need reminding of the very special qualities of Combe Haven Valley. In a very real sense our y16 year campaign to protect and safeguard it from those with a single focus on roadbuilding has been one long celebration of its beauty, tranquillity, ecology and history, enjoyed by generations of local people.
So, in the valley on that day between 2.00pm (out) and 6.00pm (return) you are all invited on a guided walk to the valley from Bexhill, Hastings and Crowhurst for unfurling of banners, a picnic (yours!) and a performance by popular local band the Cajun Dawgs at Bynes Farm. Children will be presented with a signed edition of a poem – inspired by the valley – by a nationally successful local poet and illustrated by a local artist.
Starting points for the walk will be:
Bexhill station; Bulverhythe playing fields entrance (Bexhill Road); Hastings station (for train to Crowhurst station start).
The return walk will begin at 6.00pm approx. to allow all to get home before it gets too dark.
The farmers at Bynes Farm – Ray and Laura Boggis – are enthusiastic supporters and have kindly offered a field for picnics (with stunning views of the valley), a trailer for the band to play on, and other basic facilities. The farm is also home to horses and other animals and they rightly ask that all of us take great care not to scare, and to keep clear of livestock and horses. Dogs welcome but on a lead please.
FURTHER INFORMATION, INCLUDING TRAIN AND BUS TIMES, WILL BE PUBLISHED ON THE WEBSITE IN EARLY SEPTEMBER
Horse, with Bynes Farm in the distance
Transport Futures East Sussex/Campaign for Better Transport / Hastings Alliance 
Please can you put up train links from Haywards Heath and Brighton
Hi Chris
Thanks for the prompt.
Yes, will include timings from HH and Brighton.
Best, Derrick
Pingback: RXbirdwalk to Combe Haven « Birding Walks in RXland
It also seems to me that rother council want the link road so it expand bexhill inland to increase the houses which will also increase the coffers from council tax reciepts and the plans of wanting another retail park would be another attack on our lovely bexhill town centre. If these houses are built then these extra cars will fill the link road and cause more traffic congestion. We dont want it and see no reason for it, Bexhill Road and dela warr road will still be a headache for everyone and the link road will extend this headache along barnhorn road where hold-ups happen at little common round-about already.
Why don’t you also call on Norman Baker to
– Grass over the A27 Lewes and Brighton and Hove bypass
– Reduce the A23 south of Pease Pottage to a single carriageway and divert the traffic back through all the towns and villages.
If this sounds absurd, it is esentially what you are suggesting the people of Hastings and Bexhill continue to put up with.
While I accept that a sizeable minority don’t want the Bexhill – Hastings Link Road, a larger number of people do. The BHLR is part of the solution in that it will allow the creation of new bus routes along the new road AND the installation of bus lanes along parts of the A259.
Without the BHLR, attempts to improve public transport are doomed to failure. The railway doesn’t run where the population is, while an efficient bus network can never be realised so long as the A259 Bexhill Road/Glyne Gap bottleneck remains.