Safe crossing campaigner hands petition to council

And Emma Turner, 31, is one step closer to her goal after East Sussex County Council (ESCC) were swayed by her petition for a pedestrian crossing point on Turkey Road, close to the site of the new Bexhill High School.

Her achievement comes despite ESCC recently cutting 1.9 million from the transport and environment department, including cuts to road safety budgets, and it is not yet clear who will pay for the much-needed crossing.

"It was a positive decision," said Emma, of Martyn's Way, Pebsham.

"But the challenge now is to find out who is going to fund it."

Emma, whose 12-year-old daughter Sophie started at Bexhill High last year, was shocked by the numbers of schoolchildren making the dangerous trip over one of the main roads into Sidley when she first moved to Bexhill in 2008.

Discussions with other parents and the local Neighbourhood Police Panel Group lead to the petition, which she and Cllr Michael Ensor, ward member for Turkey Road, presented to ESCC last Monday.

The 600-plus signatories call for urgent action to install a crossing at the junction of Turkey Road and Southlands Road, close to the site of the One Stop shop.

"Residents are most displeased about the amount of traffic going up and down Turkey Road," said Cllr Ensor. "It's come to a head with the new Bexhill High School.

"The council agreed it was indeed a priority requirement, so we managed to get our crossing onto the list before it was closed due to budget cuts."

ESCC will carry out a survey once the new school is finished later this year to learn how many people use the road, and where the crossing lies on their list of priority cases.

But Cllr Ensor said he hoped housing developers Redrow, which built an estate along Turkey Road on the site of the old Bexhill College, would come up with the cash.

But a spokesperson for Redrow said all planning conditions set by ESCC had been met, making it unlikely they would fund any more works.

She added: "The works required included highway works to Gunters Lane, Turkey Road, Millview Road and Southlands Avenue."

An ESCC spokesman said: "The site on Turkey Road meets the criteria to be considered for a pedestrian crossing, but surveys of the traffic and the numbers of people crossing the road are required before it can be taken further.

"These surveys will be delayed until the new school is up and running so that they can take into account the numbers of pupils walking to school and where they need to cross.

"Spending less requires difficult choices and we want to protect the extra money we have already committed to improving the quality of the road network, especially given the damage caused by the severe winter weather earlier in the year, and the high priority residents place on road improvements.

"But to achieve this we will need to stop many of the smaller road schemes, like pedestrian crossings and traffic calming, that we had planned to deliver this year."

Bexhill High executive principal Mike Conn said he supported anything which improved road safety for children, but added that he was aware of a wider plan to improve road safety around the new high school which made him wary of expressing unqualified support for this crossing.