Letter to the editor: 'No new buses until the road is fixed'

Many residents have commented on the loose paving bricks at Bankers’ Corner since they were laid in 2019. However many residents do not know that it was designed to have this tilt, in order to slow down traffic. A design that has resulted, over the years, in an ongoing trip hazard.

This issue of the unsafe and broken surface has long been reported in the media. In Sussex World, on 14th Nov 2019, there is this quote “More important to sort out the uneven and loose paving bricks … where the bricks have been replaced with tarmac look awful and need to be redone with secure bricks .”

So now in 2026 the situation remains. Laying paving blocks should ideally be on a flat and stable surface. Patching with tarmac is not a solution.

Specifically this ‘slope’ is preventing Stagecoach, from bringing to Eastbourne, low emission ( Euro 6) buses, due to the damage that would be caused to their undersides. In a posting on X, in response to this photo, Matthew Arnold the former Commercial Director for Stagecoach South East wrote “Bus operators have been complaining about that [slope] since the day it was built”.

So there seems to an impasse between the bus companies and East Sussex County Council. Stagecoach have told the Council about how they want to introduce these newer single decker buses but cannot do so.

So it looks like we are stuck with the old buses, until the problem is resolved.

Paul Humphreys – Chichester Close, Willingdon