Delays to completion of Hastings Queensway Gateway Road 'frustrating for everyone'

Speaking at the South East Local Enterprise Partnership (SELEP) accountability board on Friday (May 27), Keith Glazier gave an update on his authority’s part in the Queensway Gateway Road project.

Work was ongoing to design and approve a traffic-light controlled junction, which would complete the road’s long-awaited connection to the A21 (Sedlescombe Road North).

The board had previously been told the junction was expected to be completed this summer, but issues with the process have seen this already delayed timeline slip. The road is now not expected to open until this autumn at the earliest.

Cllr Glazier said: “I recognise the frustration that everyone feels in relation to this project. I can assure you that I share that frustration too.

“Whilst the majority of the project is complete, including the opening up of employment land, the remaining section has proved challenging. It is important to be aware that not only do [project lead] Sea Change Sussex have to satisfy ourselves as the local highway authority, they also have to satisfy National Highways given the scheme’s proximity to the trunk road network.”

This means an approved set of plans, drawings and specifications of the junction and a road safety audit. Cllr Glazier said this was ‘not an overnight task’ and National highways had requested extra information from Sea Change.

He told the board ‘everyone is working really hard to bring it to fruition’ with weekly project meetings, adding: “Hopefully, as I have said many times before, the day will come when we can see traffic use this vital part of the infrastructure for that part of Hastings.”

The board agreed to seek a further update at its next meeting in July.

This further report will include details of steps are being taken by ESCC to ensure Sea Change’s updates on the project are ‘robust and complete’. They said it would also set out details of how ESCC are holding the development vehicle to account in delivering the project.

Originally slated for completion by November 2016, the project has been beset by a series of delays a various stages. Even so, the majority of the road was completed in March 2019 with only the final section, connecting it to Sedlescombe Road North, now remaining unfinished.

It was originally planned to create a new roundabout at this end of the road, but, despite what is understood to be several years of negotiation, Sea Change Sussex has so far been unable to secure the land necessary to build this out.

As a result, Sea Change is pursuing alternative plans to create a traffic-light controlled junction between Sedlescombe Road North and the Queensway Gateway Road instead. It is this plan which is currently going through the design revisions Cllr Glazier described.

Should these problems be resolved on time, a report considered by the board says, the construction work would be expected to begin in ‘early autumn 2022’ and take eight weeks from there. However, this report warns that it remains ‘unclear’ the whether these timelines will be met.