The Queensway Gateway Road will run west from the Sainsbury's turnoff to Queensway Road (image: Masterplan Layout document).

New road set to increase traffic congestion

The Queensway Gateway Road which Sea Change Sussex is applying to build will increase delays, according to the developer’s own transport study. The contradictory effect has been pointed out by Combe Haven Defenders. Nick Terdre reports.

Sea Change recently lodged a planning application for the Queensway Gateway Road, previously known as the Baldslow Link, which would connect Queensway with the A21 at Sedlescombe Road North by Sainsbury’s, taking a route through the Hollington Valley Site of Nature Conservation Importance. The road is due to be funded with £15 million of public money from the South East Local Enterprise Partnership (SELEP).

Hastings and Rye MP Amber Rudd, who has campaigned for the new road, has stated that it “will relieve traffic congestion,” and earlier this year launched a petition in favour of it.

However, the Transport Assessment of the road, submitted as part of the planning application, shows that far from reducing congestion, building the road would actually increase delays to road users, as Combe Haven Defenders (CHD) point out. The report forecasts the expected delays to traffic in 2016 and 2028 at various junctions, both with and without the new road. In six out of eight scenarios the predicted delays are greater – often by a very large margin – with the new road than without it.

The document states that, “Based on the outputs from the highway model, selected junctions on the local network in 2016 and 2028 have been assessed in detail. This assessment indicates that these junctions are predicted to be at/above operational capacity with or without the proposed QGR [Queensway Gateway Road] in both 2016 and 2028.”

CHD spokesperson Gabriel Carlyle stated: “The Queensway Gateway Road would take £15m of public money and would destroy the Hollington Valley Site of Nature Conservation Importance. Far from achieving its stated aim of relieving congestion, it would in fact increase delays. Hastings Borough Council should refuse this planning application as the road is flawed in every respect.”

The planning application is open for public comment until Tuesday October 28.

Combe Haven Defenders press release.

You can submit a comment to HBC here.

Data on projected delays can be found in sections 7.3.2 and 7.3.3 of the Transport Assessment (pp 27-30). The quote is taken from section 9 (p 34). (For unknown reasons, availability of this document on the HBC website comes and goes unpredictably. If you are unable to access it, the problem is not with our link but with the HBC website.)

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