Object to the link road to the link road?

Planning permission for the link road to the link road has now been submitted by Sea Change Sussex, writes HOT’s Zelly Restorick. The ‘Gateway Road’ will link the Bexhill Hastings Link Road to Wrestwood Road in Bexhill and is, according to John Shaw, CEO of Sea Change Sussex, the “first digestible bite” in the much wider development plans for the area through to 2027.

If you’re interested in commenting or filing objections to the planning application, you have until 31 May to do so. The Combe Haven Defenders, campaigning for the protection in perpetuity of the Haven and against the road, have put together a template of suggested ideas, should you need guidance.

At a meeting regarding the link road to the link road, John Shaw of Sea Change Sussex was specifically asked if public funds would be used in building the road. He replied that there was no legal requirement for him to reveal the source/s of funding, rather this would the responsibility of the organisations providing the funds.

“Like the Link Road itself”, say the Combe Haven Defenders, “the ‘Gateway Road’ will lead to further loss of greenfield land and damage to wildlife habitat, increased carbon emissions, loss of amenity areas and large-scale changes to the character of the area.”

Much of this land is open countryside, described in Rother District Council’s North East Bexhill Master Plan, as a landscape that “features woodland, hedgerows, copses, ponds and ditches [and] form[s] part of an important local habitat mosaic. In particular, the abundance of ancient species-rich hedgerows, some with specimen trees, provide habitats for a wide range of birds, small mammals and invertebrates, as well as flight lines and feeding routes for bats. They also host a variety of significant plant species. North to south running hedgerows, which link to the landscape beyond, are most important….As well as bats, there are other protected species, notably badgers, as well as dormice in the area.”

Land owned by Trinity College, Cambridge 

A lot of the land is owned by one of the richest university colleges in the country.

“Trinity College, Cambridge, the richest Oxbridge college, stands to make a huge profit from the Link Road”, says a Defenders’ representative. “It owns much of the land around north east Bexhill, which Rother District Council has earmarked for a ‘major urban extension’.  Without the Link Road, this land could not be developed and would remain the tranquil countryside it is at present.  Through one of its development companies, Trinity has aggressively pursued a strategy of trying to persuade the council to allow as much land as possible to be developed.”

More detailed information about Trinity College’s involvement and some puzzling facts and figures, can be found here. Maybe you’ll have some insights or information that will help them find answers to their questions?

“Whatever East Sussex County Council would have us believe about congestion on Bexhill Road and job creation”, say the Defenders, “it is clear that the road is not for the benefit of local people.  It is for the benefit of rich landowners and property developers, who are intent on destroying our countryside in order to increase their profits.”

More information about the Gateway Road planning application here.

More details on filing objections to planning applications here.

Details of the North East Bexhill Masterplan here.

Previous HOT article about Sussex Sea Change and their plans here.

For other articles about the local and national road building programme, do a HOT search for ‘Bexhill Hastings Link Road‘.

 

 

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