Hastings link road

Now, while sat in traffic crawling towards Bexhill at under 5mph I was mumbling to myself "when are they going to build this darn link road?". I can see now that while in traffic my thoughts were selfish but none the less valid.

So which camp am I in? I believe Hastings needs a link road but it cannot solve the road infrastructure problems all on it's own. The question I ask myself is where is the traffic that runs through Bexhill Road coming from? I don't see many cars backing up Filsham Road when I pass it. Seafront traffic is heavy, as always, and just as bad is the flow of cars from Harley Shute Road.

This is where the problems lies. Where should the link road link from?

The current plan is somewhere along Queesnway. Great. But is it? Traffic from the coast isn't going to travel up to Queensway just to get to Bexhill. The Harley Shute Road queue will certainly use the link road, as will I because that's the road I predominently get trapped in.

But what is the effect of having a link from Queensway?

Driving home from work along Bohemia Road the other day, an ambulance needed to get through towards Silverhill and the trouble they had to carve through the traffic. There's a multi-million pound hospital on The Ridge, not to mention schools that would no doubt suffer under the increased flow of traffic to use the Queensway link.

It's on everyones lips. We all know it. But no-one hears it.

• What's the purpose of the slip road at the bottom of Harley Shute Road?
• When are they going to get rid of the pelican crossing at Glyne Gap and give pedestrians a safe alternative and road users a break?
• Where's the slip road into Ravenside retail park? We don't need a redesign of the entrance because nothing was wrong with the old one.
• Why expand a roundabout on the A21 when that wasn't posing any problems? OK, in peak times it could become a trap but that's when you're going to work, coming home is more important so what about the "three-into-one" near Tunbridge Wells? Grrr...
• How has the Johns Cross roundabout helped things? Was it needed?
• Why does the A21, the Hastings lifeline with all the HGV's, tractors and other traffic, have to pass a primary school? Especially when it's just past a 40mph zone.

So much more needs to be done and I can understand the opposition to the scheme because of the areas of outstanding natural beauty and the Coombe Haven Valley which is one of our treasures. Visit Wild Hastings for more. I'm an outdoor kind of guy and I regularly walk through the woods and the valley. I never want to see it, or the wildlife, destroyed or inhibited as it's as important to me as living by the sea but I'm really into progression. Economically and socially.

Why do we want to stand still? This is Hastings, the forgotten town. I've even heard complaints about the new railway station and the fact that it still doesn't run through to Ashford without having to change. Somehow I don't think Hastings has that power as it's officially a rail companies decision and not the councils. I like the new station. What better way to have people visit Hastings by rail and offer a great impression. They can walk into town passing the new University, look left into Cambridge Road and see a busy pedestrianised centre with an underpass, look right into Robertson Street to see the new Creative Media Centre. It can surely only do Hastings good.

The recent news that rail links to London are to be cut isn't good and I hope that local authorities fight this with all their might as road and rail infrastructure is Hastings weakness and by making it worse it would cripple a fit to burst economy and deviod the town of the point of regeneration.

Just my $0.02