Dilemma of slow crawl to work by bus

It was almost inevitable that after enduring two weeks of trunk road traffic chaos caused by one set of works another set would appear - so doubling the problem.

Desperate measures have been adopted by drivers this week as traffic flow on De La Warr Road - a rush-hour crawl at the best of times - has reached an all-time crisis level.

Drivers of all types of vehicle have taken to seeking alternative routes. The problem is that there is precious little alternative save going via Dorset Road, Penland Road and Hastings Road. This route is already at breaking point at peak times. The result has been to duplicate the situation.

So we now have serious snarl-ups on both routes.

Great.

The situation serves to highlight how fragile and inadequate the local transport infrastructure is.

It should serve as an object lesson to planners who believe that massive new development can be foisted onto the town without a radical re-think of how the local transport network can cope with it.

Mere tinkering with existing junctions will do little to enable existing roads to carry yet more capacity.

Nor do we believe that the Bexhill-Hastings Link Road is anything like an adequate solution.

The Observer recently referred to the scheme as a poor man's bypass. We stand by that assertion.

If the beauty of the Combe Haven Valley really does have to be sacrificed to the demands of transport then let not the sacrifice be in vain.

The Link Road is a compromise, cobbled together in the wake of Government rejection of the bypass.

It was conceived as a means to enable the twin projects of a northern Bexhill business park and the Worsham housing development to go ahead despite loss of the bypass.

It was never going to solve the issues that the bypass was designed to solve.

New figures show that bus usage in the county is increasing. If this reflects a trend away from the car to public transport it is to be commended.

But who is going to risk commuting to work by bus if the bus is stuck in the kind of grid-lock we have been witnessing this week?