Your Letters - June 8

Hidden chaos

WITH reference to the computer-created front page picture in the Observer (May 25) - what a tranquil scene it conjures up! What it does not show, however, is the chaos and tailback of traffic waiting to exit right on to the next A259 bottleneck that will now be relocated on to Little Common Road from Bexhill Road.

The truth is this new link road has nothing to do with relieving traffic congestion along the Bexhill Road but everything to do with releasing green field land for housing development. I would imagine the people who will eventually live in those new houses and work in the proposed factories will all be driving cars - thus ensuring more traffic congestion.

Incidentally what businesses will be relocating to Hastings and Bexhill? In the past the lack of interest shown by manufacturers in coming to this area has mainly been due to the lack of skilled labour and the abysmal transport links with London. The money being spent on this proposed link road could be put to far better use in improving the A21. As I am now in my eighties if and when this disastrous road is built I may not be around to say, "I told you so".

G W ROGERS

Clinch Green Avenue.

More congestion

IN the pamphlet issued by the East Sussex County Council about the proposed Bexhill-Hastings Link Road claims are made that building the road will mean that

a) Bexhill will have fewer accidents in built up areas;

b) that air quality along the Bexhill Road will be improved, and

c) that developers will be able to build much needed housing and business development.

A first class project - unless you live or work in the Little Common area or your children attend the schools near to Little Common Road. For you the extra traffic generated by the development will mean

a) greater traffic congestion;

b) more traffic accidents, and

c) increased air pollution.

The MP for Hastings can see the benefits for his 'patch' - and what are Bexhill's representatives doing supporting such a short-sighted scheme? Solving a problem by creating more problems is no way to conduct county business! The answer to Bexhill's present and future traffic problems (including access to the landfill site in Turkey Road) is obviously a by-pass. So, please, write to the Planning Committee at County Hall and tell them that you want them to refuse the application for the Link Road and that you wish them to recommend that a by-pass be built.

D W WOOLLER

Collington Rise.

Who's listening?

IN your articles on the proposed link road in your May 25 edition you called for our comments on the proposed link road. I have examined the proposals at the De La Warr exhibition and whilst I appreciate your ideals it strikes me that whatever comments we may make it will not affect the outcome of this enquiry. I have had correspondence with East Sussex County Council in particular over this suggested link road in the past but I have not even had an acknowledgement of my correspondence let alone an answer.

The proposal for the current routing of the link does nothing to help the situation other than removing the chaos from Bexhill Road and transferring it to Barnhorn Road and Little Common and similar chaos at the northern end of Queensway and its subsequent junctions.

In my opinion ESCC should have refused the government's request to seek an alternative to the original by-pass turned down in 2001 and pointed out that the roads of Barnhorn and Little Common are subject to more accidents than all the rest of the Sussex A259 put together. When travelling north of London it is obvious that the South East has been very badly neglected with little improvement in road construction or condition since the end of World War II.

There is another issue which seems to have escaped the notice of the planners in that there is already congestion around the roundabout at Little Common and whilst the traffic travelling east may be able to negotiate the traffic lit junction at King Offa Way, traffic travelling west from the link road will cause massive delays. We currently have a green arrow for traffic turning from Little Common Road into London Road but without considerable delays for all routes there appears to be no way of avoiding this congestion.

If the proposed link road goes ahead then within a year or so of its opening, with the increase in traffic levels as experienced with other alterations to the roads, there will be such chaos that alternative entrances and exits will have to be devised to get traffic moving. This will involve considerable extra expense compared with making a sensible set of designs with the current proposals.

D J DIGWEED

Duke Street.

Link deception

THE publication of the latest stage of this ill-starred proposal reveals with depressing clarity what a deceptive and third-rate scheme we are actually faced with.

The proposal is, in reality, not for a Link Road at all but for a patchwork Hastings By-Pass cobbled together from inadequate and mismatched parts. These are (heading eastwards):

1. Existing A259 to Bexhill Down: already dangerously over-trafficked and blighting Little Common and West Bexhill;