Hundreds of supporters have already made their views known on the BHLR – and if you have not yet done so, it’s not too late.
We remain convinced that the BHLR is the wrong scheme for Bexhill and Hastings, and would damage the local environment and economy and quality of life for all. It offers very poor value for money and would bring few if any benefits. In a period when public funds are scarce, it’s important that they used wisely and are not put at risk with very dubious ventures such as the BHLR.

Letters and e-mails to the minister can still be sent up until the 14th October. Our main concerns haven’t changed and we remind you of these below.

If you have time, please let the minister know your views. Here is a summary of ours:

Issues and failures of greatest concern to the Hastings Alliance:

• Sacrificing a unique asset for residents and visitors of high ecological, landscape and archeological interest – Combe Haven valley – for a road whose need has never been proven;

• Proposing the road without ever properly and fully investigating more sustainable transport and development alternatives;

• Focussing on the BHLR to the exclusion of other, easily deliverable and cheaper improvements;

• Reducing congestion in one location and shifting it to other locations;

• Claiming that the BHLR is essential for housing when it isn’t;

• Claiming that 2,000 jobs will follow the BHLR when there is no evidence that jobs will come but may instead transfer to new business parks from existing town centre locations;

• Promoting carbon emitting ‘car based’ development in a town where many have no car and which undermines sustainable modes of transport;

• Failing to attract any private sector money to pay for BHLR and other works connected to it;

• Using East Sussex County Council funds to pay part of the construction costs of the road ((£29m – £19m more than planned). No private sector contributions;

• Carrying out consultations which misled residents into choosing one road route out of 6 offered – four of which had been rejected already by government, and giving no description at all of alternative transport;

• Ignoring sustainable alternatives for 11 years while pursuing the BHLR at whatever cost in money and time;

You can e-mail your concerns to: development.pool@dft.gsi.gov.uk
You can also write to:
The Rt Hon Norman Baker,MP
Parliamentary Under Secretary of State
Department for Transport
Great Minster House
76 Marsham Street
London
SW1P 4DR