Plans for controversial bus lanes in Eastbourne revised
New plans for bus lanes in Eastbourne have been drawn up after the project was put on hold following outcry from residents.
Residents feared bus lanes proposed along the ‘ Seaside corridor’, as part of the East Sussex Bus Service Improvement Plan (BSIP), would impact local businesses.
These concerns sparked a protest at County Hall, and the plans were put on hold after East Sussex County Council (ESCC) voted to seek an extension from the government to change the design.
New plans have now been revealed which notably seek to retain several parking spaces in Seaside.
Loss of parking space was the largest concern from residents when the bus lanes were first proposed.
Jodie Atherton , sales manager at DB Domestics in Seaside, previously said: “Businesses are really concerned because they’ll lose all of their parking.
"They won’t be able to load and unload. People won’t be able to come to us and park, and we do rely on a massive amount of out-of-town business.”
Under the new plans, approximately 53 of 100 parking spaces in Seaside are set to be retained, according to the council. The original plans retained 0.
The revised BSIP proposes an eastbound bus lane between Windermere Crescent and Seaside Roundabout, and a westbound bus lane between Langney Roundabout and Seaside Roundabout.
New pedestrian crossings could also be installed at Seaside Roundabout, St Andrew’s Church, Co-op and Lidl respectively.
Under the new plans, ESCC said it expects bus journey times decrease by up to seven minutes per bus trip at the most congested times.
The plans state: "Across a whole week there would be an accumulated weekly total of 76 hours of journey time savings for buses with over 14,000 passengers per week benefitting from these time savings."
The BSIP was drawn up after ESCC received funding from the Department for Transport to addresses the Government’s National Bus Strategy. It came after a 2018 Bus Passenger Survey identified ‘punctuality’ and ‘journey times’ as areas to improve in East Sussex.
The BSIP seeks to improve the reliability of buses, encourage more people to travel by bus, improve journey times, reduce congestion on the road and tackle climate change concerns.
For more information and to respond to the public consultation, visit: www.consultation.eastsussex.gov.uk/economy-transport-environment/bsipbusprioritymeasures-eastbourne/.