Link road approved

I must say I am pleased that the Task Force and plans for regeneration in the town have given the bodies at the top confidence to allow such infrastructure changes but this link road has some serious and valid arguments.

• In the red corner, there is regeneration, industrial estates being developed around the link road and with better road links, there is more prospect for inward investment.
• In the blue corner we have advocates of the Combe Haven Valley which is an outstanding area of natural beauty that cannot be carved up. There is also the problem of managing 30,000 cars a day that travel from Hastings to Bexhill and beyond.

Bexhill Road cannot sustain that amount of traffic. In truth, it can't handle half that. Polution levels there are nearly the highest in Sussex. I don't doubt that anyone can argue that we need to deal with this and urgently. The A259 and particularly Bexhill Road is really a joke. The bottle neck seems to be Glyne Gap. It doesn't matter where you come from, Glyne Gap is the car park of Hastings and Bexhill.

So much can be done to alleviate this too but I fear not much will. With a redesigned Glyne Gap, the problem won't go away but it could become almost bearable.

The link road itself is looking to go from Queensway to a Sidley'ish area. This is OK but two problems spring to mind. Sidley'ish is going to be in real trouble because the roads there are worse than Glyne Gap. The Ridge is in for a hammering too. With two girls schools and a primary at the East of the Ridge, the mighty Conquest Hospital and the several residential and commercial residents living there, it will be interesting, to say the least.

As I have previously mentioned, I am for the link road. Not because I want to carve up the countryside and get more miles per gallon out of my 2.5 V6 car, but because Hastings needs to move. People need to get in and out more effectively. This can only have a positive effect on tourism, investment, quality of life for residents coughing the CO2 in Bexhill Road and more besides but I am concerned about either end of the link road.

30,000 cars still need to move and it's more than we can cope with. Better rail services would help and what I'd also like to see is a complete Rock-a-nore to Bexhill cycle lane and monorail/tram of sorts. I love walking the seafront. I would also like to cycle it too but as a walker I hate the cyclists on the prom and often fell the rush of air as they pedal past at over 20mph.

Let's wait to see what comes out of a public debate about this to see where the strengths and weaknesses lie. The problem is the people that make the decisions have strong arguments/reports/stats etc and the people opposing have the countryside and the fact it won't regenerate Hastings. The is a severe inbalance here and I hope both sides sharpen up and give us some good reasons either way that people can believe in.