The traffic is dreadful in Battle

Can’t believe how particularly bad the traffic/hold up was this morning Tuesday 26th November.

There was a red double decker bus and a transporter waiting to travel up North Trade Road, with cars in between and various lorries waiting to come down North Trade Road. With parked cars on either side and a white van, which is regularly parked there. The roundabout was totally blocked and myself and another car had to back into Saxonwood to accommodate a large lorry pushing its way through! I did this also to protect my car as the large vehicles had so little room to manoeuvre. The bollards don’t help as we couldn’t mount the pavement due to these. This is a regular recurrence and I find it very hard to understand why this is allowed in main artery leading into Battle town centre!

Further up North Trade Road nearer to Claverham College the traffic calming certainly does not work as lorries and cars do not slow down, there have been so many near misses up there and when the cars are parked outside to pick up the children it’s very difficult to see ahead – a blind bend coming down the road.

When is Rother District Council going to wake up to this problem we have constantly in Battle. Cars parking on the main road should be shamed and blamed for causing this problem and the sooner we have double yellow lines down both sides of North Trade Road the better.

Regarding Battle car parks the parking fees are ridiculously high and we should certainly have the first 20 minutes approx free for residents to buy a paper or collect a prescription etc as is done in other towns in Kent/ Sussex. Because of this people are parking on the main road!

Also I wasn’t aware one had to pay for parking on a Sunday and was given a parking fine this Sunday in Mount Street car park which was my fault but other residents that I know were also unaware of this.

We desperately need more parking in the town and Battle Abbey, when not in use, surely could be utilised during the winter months for residents and visitors.

Maybe then I won’t feel as if I live in a toy town/banana republic!

S. Cunningham

North Trade Road