LETTER: No need for pricey tunnel

With reference to the letter from Rosalyn St Pierre in your February 10th publication regarding the proposed rail connection between Lewes and Uckfield, there is no need for an expensive tunnel or aquifer on a bridge over the A27.

By The Newsroom

Published 28th Feb 2017, 06:00 BST

Updated 1st Mar 2017, 09:22 BST

All that is required is to re-open a long disused connection known as the Hamsey Link whose route ran from a junction just below Hamsey level crossing on the line between Lewes and Cooksbridge.

The earthworks of this link are still in existence and can easily be traced, and in fact in the 1970s the trees and scrubland which had grown on it were cleared by (the then) British Rail because plans had already been agreed to re-open the connection via that route.

Therefore if this route were put back into operation, Lewes would NOT be by-passed. I suggest therefore that members of East Sussex County Council get their act together with Maria Caulfield and get the Hamsey Link reopened as the most obvious (and probably cheapest) solution to the problem.

R Beckett

Newhaven