Plea to improve '˜dangerous' Hooe road

Chris Bloor says he felt the council missed the chance to improve safety on the B2095 from The Lamb Inn towards Hooe Common when it was resurfaced in the autumn.

He believes the road should have been widened to allow vehicles to pass safely.

He said: “Just recently two lorries became wedged together on a bend such that the road was blocked for some time, and in another incident a vehicle left the road on the bend just past The Horsewalk and hit a tree.”

Mr Bloor has asked highways to reduce the speed limit on this stretch of road from 60mph to 40mph.

He added the road edges were not finished properly during the resurfacing and are already breaking away, and drainage issues have not been addressed.

An East Sussex County Council spokesman said: “This stretch of road was resurfaced late last year to the same width as before, although a small section of it which was narrower than the rest of the road was widened so the whole stretch is now the same width.

“It is normal if motorists drive too close to the edge of the road there will be some wear and tear to the edges, but we are satisfied that the work was completed to a high standard and the road is safe to drive on. However, our contractors will shortly be installing bollards at a number of locations identified by our maintenance team to mark the edges of the road and deter drivers from straying onto the verge.

“The limited funding we have means we are not able to routinely widen roads to facilitate traffic and reducing the speed limit is something we only consider where there is a need to do so for safety reasons. On this kind of rural road with very few visible properties, reducing the speed limit has not always been found to be effective.

“As we only have a limited trunk road network in East Sussex, our policy is to keep A and B roads open to all classes of traffic, including HGVs, however we are working with the haulage industry and satellite navigation providers to try and reduce incidences of HGVs driving on unsuitable roads.

“While we do understand the concerns of residents, we can only work within our very limited resources.”