Transport Futures East Sussex/Campaign for Better Transport / Hastings Alliance

EAST SUSSEX TRANSPORT 2000
PRESS RELEASE – IMMEDIATE

NEAR DOUBLING OF COST FOR BEXHILL TO HASTINGS LINK ROAD – A BIG DRAIN ON THE PUBLIC PURSE say local transport group.

The recent announcement from East Sussex County Council that the estimated costs of the Bexhill to Hastings Link Road (BHLR) have risen to a staggering £89 million appear to completely ignore conditions placed on the government’s approval for the scheme, says Derrick Coffee, County Officer for East Sussex Transport 2000, the local sustainable transport pressure group.

Government approval was given with conditions attached. One of these was that the gross and net costs of the scheme remain unchanged. The latest figure is almost double the original figure of £47.12 million and in the light of this we will certainly be asking the Secretary of State for Transport to reconsider the whole scheme, said Derrick Coffee.

This news comes only two weeks after a report commissioned by East Sussex Transport 2000 from a government adviser found that East Sussex County Council had failed to fully investigate non-road alternatives to BHLR even though government guidance required them to do so. This alone justifies a reconsideration of the scheme by government ministers.

It looks as though the taxpayer will now have to foot double the original bill for the ill conceived road scheme, said Mr Coffee; we might ask the County Council what kind of world class sustainable transport strategy could be developed for Hastings and Bexhill with £89million to invest, but they couldn’t know because they have never properly considered and tested alternatives to the road scheme. For that money, we think it could be very impressive and could provide:

· a safe route to school for every child

· residential streets where space can be shared by all instead of being dominated by traffic

· comprehensive pedestrian and cycle networks, incorporating the ‘Greenway’

· a high quality bus service

· new rail stations at Glyne Gap and West Marina

· ‘travel plans’ for businesses and organisations to drastically cut driver only car commuting

· a series of high quality town wide public realm improvements that would be possible through strategies that were based on walking, cycling and public transport and not the car centred BHLR strategy.

We say scrap the scheme, which is clearly spinning out of control, or at the very least, place it on hold to enable transport planners and communities to work together to create a transport strategy that reflects a serious commitment to sustainability and quality of life. This could gain Hastings and Bexhill deserved national and international reputations as towns prepared to face the climate change challenge, and save a unique asset – the Combe Haven valley – from certain environmental degradation.

ENDS

Derrick Coffee, County Officer, East Sussex Transport 2000.
9 Mayfield Place, Eastbourne BN22 8XJ 01424 446373

The Countryside Agency (a statutory organisation designated to protect the countryside) does not intend to make a formal objection to the proposed Bexhill-Hastings Link Road (BHLR) despite significant environmental concerns raised by its own internal advisory report

A key member of Hastings Alliance has recently been given part of a confidential, internal report commissioned by the Countryside Agency (CA)to advise them on the anticipated environmental impacts of the proposed BHLR.

The report, dated October 2005, highlights several key issues that should be of concern to the CA:

• Discrepancy between assessments of damaging effects of proposed BHLR on countryside. In sharp contrast to the ‘large negative impact’ (landscape assessment score) of the proposed BHLR on the landscape of the Combe Haven valley determined by independent experts in the South Coast Multi-Modal Study, ESCC have stated the impact would be ‘slight to moderate’. After a site visit, CA representatives concluded that it was doubtful the impact of the road on the landscape would be as low as that stated by ESCC. Further, the building of the BHLR is a requirement for the construction of the North Bexhill Business Park on a greenfield site. Therefore, the landscape effects of the Business Park should be added to those of the BHLR as should the impacts at the Baldslow junction.

• Economic justification for the BHLR is questionable. The scheme benefit:cost ratio is 1.8; this is extremely low for a road scheme which is normally in the range 3-4. Recently introduced new guidance makes this low benefit:cost ratio even worse; all road schemes must now have the cost of the CO2 emissions factored into the cost benefit analysis.
• Benefits of the proposed BHLR may not have been compared correctly with a ‘Do Minimum’ strategy. The authors of the report were unable to obtain information about the ‘Do minimum’ option that was used by ESCC to compile their Appraisal Summary Table for the proposed BHLR, ie what are the benefits/impacts of the BHLR being compared with?
• Traffic noise is likely to ruin the tranquillity of the valley and Crowhurst village. Vehicle speed monitoring would reduce noise but no speed limit has been specified for the proposed road. In addition noise barriers could be provided but these would add to the visual intrusion of the road.
• The BHLR will induce significant increases in traffic in surrounding areas. As the BHLR would provide additional road space on a route that parallels the exisitng road, congestion on the present A259 would decrease but congestion in many of the surrounding roads would increase. Traffic levels in both Hastings and Bexhill would rise with consequent increased emission of harmfull greenhouse gases and air pollution.

Despite the identification of these potentially serious adverse environmental impacts, a spokesperson from the CA made it clear to the Hastings Alliance that the CA ‘will not formally object’ to the proposed BHLR as ‘this report is an advisory report and should not be viewed as representing the Agency’s formal view of the proposed new road scheme’. Instead they intend to work with ESCC to identify mitigation measures that will minimize these adverse environmental impacts. However, since October the Countryside Agency has formally merged with English Nature and the Rural Development Service to form Natural England. Perhaps Natural England will take a different stance.

Speaking for the Hastings Alliance (a coalition of local and national organisations opposed to the BHLR), its chairman Nick Bingham said:

“The leaflet glosses over the environmental damage the road will bring about, fails to mention that BHLR will lead to more, not less, traffic in Hastings and Bexhill, and in doing so will dump an extra annual 5,426 tonnes of greenhouse gas CO2 into the atmosphere at a time when climate change is supposedly at the top of local and national governments" agendas. All this is admitted by East Sussex County Council (ESCC) in its own studies, then conveniently ignored in its leaflet.[2]

“The complete absence of any information in the leaflet on alternatives to the car, and the many other ways to reduce traffic, confirms what the Alliance, and expert consultants have said repeatedly; that ESCC other BHLR supporters have failed to properly examine alternatives to car travel. It"s a very serious matter and shameful when Hastings has a high level (39%) of households with no access to a car. BHLR is a seriously flawed road scheme.”

The Hastings Alliance believe that the BHLR is far from inevitable and that it has to be stopped.
Nick Bingham concluded:

“The less than competent process followed by ESCC and others in developing the BHLR should be exposed. Unbelieveably, there has never been any evidence put forward by those promoting the road to show that it is the best solution for Hastings and Bexhill, simply a blind adherence to the mantra that "it’s a good thing". If there is evidence, it should be published because we all need to see it. The only alternatives ever placed in front of the public have been other routes for BHLR that would never have been approved because of legal protection. In this respect, the consultation was manipulative, stupid, or both. We are all being conned into accepting a very poor and damaging road which will carry local traffic of 30,000 vehicles a day through a beautiful valley that is one of Hastings and Bexhill"s greatest amenities, before dumping it back in the towns" built up areas."

Notes for Editor:

Hastings Alliance constituent groups and organisations; document reference:

1. Local: Friends of the Brede Valley, Hastings Friends of the Earth, Friends of the Earth South East, East Sussex Transport 2000, Hastings Urban Wildlife, Sussex Wildlife Trust, Railfuture Coastway Group, Council for the Protection of Rural England – Sussex, SUSTRANS, Wishing Tree Residents Association.

National: CPRE, Friends of the Earth, Greenpeace, Railfuture, Royal Society for the Protection of Birds, SUSTRANS, Transport 2000, The Wildlife Trusts, Woodland Trust, Worldwide Fund for Nature,.

2. ESCC Local Transport Plan, Major Scheme Bid, BHLR July 2004.

Road building often leads to much faster traffic growth than forecast, according to a new study commissioned by CPRE (1) and the Countryside Agency. (2) The report specifically highlights how the infamous Newbury Bypass failed, by generating massive traffic growth in the area. The Hastings Alliance welcomes the CPRE report, and believes it undermines the case for the Bexhill to Hastings Link Road (BHLR) being proposed by East Sussex County Council. The Hastings Alliance say that lessons must be leaned from failed and hugely expensive road schemes, and BHLR should be scrapped.

Researchers studied three controversial major road schemes of recent years: the A34 Newbury Bypass in Berkshire, the A27 Polegate Bypass near Eastbourne, East Sussex and the M65 Blackburn Southern Bypass in Lancashire.

They found traffic on these roads had already reached or exceeded the levels forecast for the year 2010. (3) And extra traffic, over and above the gradual increase happening everywhere, had flowed onto local roads as a result of the schemes, undermining the claim that the bypasses would reduce congestion. Campaigners against the BHLR fear that the scheme will also only bring very limited short term relief, and will create more traffic in the area.

The CPRE study (4) is one of the first to look at what actually happens once roads have been built. For all three schemes, there was above average traffic growth, increased development pressures on undeveloped land nearby and significant damage to landscapes (see case studies at the end of this e-mail).

At Newbury and Polegate the new bypasses did reduce town centre traffic. But the reductions were not as much as originally forecast, whilst traffic has increased on the bypassed roads and on the new bypasses. Highways Agency traffic data shows that the Polegate Bypass generated 27% additional traffic in the area one year after opening. (5)

Newbury has seen rapid traffic growth, with most of the freed up space on the old, bypassed road being taken by new traffic attracted by new development. This echoes the conclusions of a WS Atkins report in 2005 that traffic had increased on the roads around Newbury by 48% in just four years, whilst over the same period nationally traffic had grown by only about 5%. (6)

The Hastings Alliance believes that if built, the BHLR would generate more traffic than is currently predicted, will devastate the Combe Haven Valley, and be a waste of taxpayers" money. The Alliance believes the road should be scrapped and sustainable measures to reduce traffic growth, serve any new development and give greater travel choice should be developed and implemented instead.

Nick Bingham, Chairman of the Hastings Alliance said: “We welcome this important CPRE and Countryside Agency report, and believe it undermines the case for the Bexhill Hastings Link Road. New roads create more traffic and greenhouse gases, and damage the wider environment. We must learn from past mistakes, starting with scrapping BHLR”. END

Nick Bingham, Chairman, Hastings Alliance

Derrick Coffee, East Sussex Transport 2000

The Highways Agency has published possible layouts for the junction at the Hastings end of the proposed road.

The proposal for a Hastings-Bexhill link road had the obvious weakness that it would have created a problem where Queensway
joins with the Ridge and the A21.

Well, what do you do if your proposed
road is going to create a problem? Build another road of course!

There are three options: all of them would involve yet further destruction of countryside.

View maps of the proposals (pdf)