Bexhill needs safer, wider pavements

In the discussion about Bexhill town centre, some contributors have ignored what really matters to people- saving lives- by maximising social distancing. Medical opinion continues to insist on two principles: wash your hands, and maximise social distance. On the second, our own council, East Sussex, has taken a lukewarm approach, while the neighbouring county of Kent, also Conservative controlled, has put the principle into practice enthusiastically. While East Sussex was moaning that reallocation of space had to be implemented quickly, Kent was getting on with the job at speed.

So, what were the consequences? Kent, with its London suburban belt and the corona virus magnet of Ashford, couldn’t be said to face a smaller challenge in containing the virus than East Sussex. The infection rate in the two counties peaked at roughly the same figure.

However, the two counties have been poles apart in their approach to the Emergency Active Travel Fund. Kent has a much larger population than East Sussex and also showed greater ambition in terms of the nature of the schemes it put forward to government, so it was not surprising it was awarded three times the amount the government set aside for East Sussex in the first phase.

True to its promise to reward the most enthusiastic local authorities, the government is set to award Kent £8 million for the second phase, up from an earlier estimate of £6.6 million, while ESCC is only putting in for £1.6 million, down from the earlier estimate of £2 million. The ratio of the expenditure between the two counties has risen from 3 times to 5 times.

So what has been the effect upon the Covid figures?

Both counties have an average stated ratio of 4 cases in every 100,000 overall, although the precise East Sussex average is closer to 5. In recent times, as the Kent schemes are implemented, there has been a fall in the figures for Covid - down 20 in the two weeks prior to August 21st. Meanwhile, the East Sussex figures from the same period increased by 8, in line with the national trend.

This may be a coincidence but, if this is confirmed as a longer lasting trend, we could say that the failure to implement the government’s plan has serious consequences. The priority should be to get the virus under control. Once the virus is beaten, the economy can begin to grow again at its best rate.

To read the arguments from Howard Martin last week, you would think that this consideration did not exist.

As for the arguments against, it cannot be denied that the Chamber of Commerce has created the impression of massive opposition to the East Sussex compromise plan for Bexhill. However, if we drill down into the facts a little more, we can see how this effect was created.

The chamber told you it had consulted 250 businesses. But it did not tell you that the far less impressive figure of just 26 took part in the Zoom meeting which rejected the compromise scheme. It told you that 179 people took part in its survey. It did not tell you that only 41 of those thought it important to oppose pavement widening.

It certainly didn’t tell you that 48% of the respondents thought social distancing was very important. It didn’t tell you that, although its proposals are called ‘pedestrian priority’, that means people walking in roads shared with cars. It definitely didn’t point out how ironic it is that ‘pedestrian priority’ means opposing the widening of the pavements pedestrians use!

People don’t like shopping on congested, car-ridden, polluted streets. If we move forwards, we can improve our environment and the environment, and we can start to turn Councillor Langland’s vision into Bexhill’s reality. The traders themselves could recognise that wider,safer pavements are what Bexhill needs and what Bexhill wants, and that their interests are the same as that of their shoppers. And that this message is buried away in the Chamber of Commerce’s figures. Isn’t the customer always right?

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