Speed limit on road near Battle set to be lowered

On Wednesday (June 15), East Sussex County Council’s planning committee agreed to allow the making of a Traffic Regulation Order (TRO), which would extend a 40mph zone in London Road.

The TRO comes as part of conditions attached to the construction of 50 homes at land to the west of Lillybank Farm, which was approved by Rother District Council in May 2017.

It was identical to one approved by the committee in 2018, which had expired due to a delay in the necessary highway works taking place.

The application had been brought before the committee as a result of a number of local objections.

Officers said none of the objectors had opposed the speed limit itself, but had called for it to be extended even further than what was set out.

This view was supported by ward councillor Kathryn Field (Lib Dem), who the committee heard would be bringing a petition on the calls to a lead member for transport meeting in the near future.

She said: “I think the office has missed an opportunity to get this right and make this road safer all the way to Canadia [Road] and beyond and thus incurred a lot more work and effort, because there will be a petition presented by me.”

But officers said an extension was not ‘appropriate’, as the TRO was being funded by the housing developer as part of the conditions of the Lillybank Farm scheme and was only intended to mitigate the development’s impacts.