Alliance calls for Link Road re-think

Dr Denvil Coombe says in a report commissioned by campaign member group East Sussex Transport 2000 that the Link Road option had been chosen before all other options had been examined.

Provisional approval for the 47m road was given two years ago. The road would follow the course of the former Bexhill West branch railway line from the A259 trunk road before curving off across the northern section of Crowhurst Marsh to St Leonards.

For planners in both towns the road is seen as essential. Without it, neither the job-creating planned north Bexhill business park nor the Worsham housing scheme could go ahead.

The Link Road is also seen as a means of relieving congestion on the A259.

But the road would go through an area of outstanding natural beauty. The Hastings Alliance, an umbrella group of local and national organisations, says Dr Coombe's findings show the road plan to be flawed and make a compelling case against the scheme.

They are seeking a meeting with Secretary of State for Transport Douglas Alexander claiming "a failure to properly interpret government transport and environment policy."

The report - 'Bexhill to Hastings Link Road: Investigation of Alternatives,' found that the Link Road scheme had been chosen before all options had been developed and considered for further appraisal.

Government guidance says that when setting local objectives for transport solution development, the objectives 'must avoid at all costs indications of preferred solutions as these may cause other better solutions to be overlooked in the process of establishing a strategy or plan.'

The report says that in ignorance of this, the Link Road was selected as the preferred solution, and other non-road measures were not investigated.

"This is completely at odds with claims made by the scheme promoters, East Sussex County Council (ESCC) that alternatives were sufficiently considered by the South Coast Multi-Modal Study (SoCoMMS) in 2002 in their Hastings Strategy Development Plan and that further analysis was therefore unnecessary."

Dr Coombe's report found that contrary to ESCC's claim, "'¦there is little in the Hastings Strategy Development Plan prepared as part of SoCoMMS to show that the problems on the A259 and their causes were analysed in detail and that the full range of potential solutions which logically follow from these analyses of the problems and their causes was investigated, as recommended in the Government's advice which should have governed the conduct of SoCoMMS".

Dr Coombe was an author of that advice.

The Hastings Alliance has always opposed the Link Road on environmental grounds. It says would cause huge environmental damage to an unspoilt, tranquil and beautiful valley.

Speaking for the alliance, lead campaigner Derrick Coffee said: "Government policy already states that 'for all environmentally sensitive areas or sites there will be a strong presumption against new or expanded transport infrastructure which would significantly affect such sites or important species, habitats or landscapes.' Undoubtedly, BHLR would do so. The fact that alternatives have not been properly investigated makes the road an even greater mistake.

"In the light of the Stern Report, the Eddington Review on Transport and widespread and growing concern over climate change, a different approach is needed.

"Instead of a land-hungry road-based strategy producing increasing levels of CO2, we need proper and thorough investigation of alternatives that would be certain to present huge opportunities for an innovative 'showcase' sustainable transport strategy for Hastings and Bexhill.

"This should now be a priority and the BHLR should be scrapped. At the very least, BHLR should be put on 'hold' until the wider public can work together with professionals to create alternative solutions to transport needs fit for the 21st century, and far more likely to offer value for money."