Taking the greenway route through Ore Valley. Another walk is planned for November (photo: Tony Polain).

Greenway group supports ESCC climate emergency petition

Hastings Greenway Group has several events planned for the autumn, including campaigning for a petition calling on East Sussex County Council to declare a climate emergency. However the greenway walk planned for next Saturday has been cancelled. Nick Terdre reports.

The petition, sponsored by Green Party branches in Hastings & Rye, Wealden and Lewes, calls on ESCC to declare a climate emergency and join other East Sussex councils including Hastings, Lewes and Eastbourne, in seeking to achieve carbon neutrality by 2030.

It also includes a commitment to “revise the transport strategy to reduce car use and put walking, cycling and sustainable transport at the centre of future plans for the county.”

As well as signing the petition, Hastings Greenway Group invites supporters to join it for the handing-in ceremony at County Hall in Lewes at 10am on Tuesday 15 October when the next full meeting of the county council takes place.”We want as big a crowd as possible at the meeting to show how important the people of East Sussex consider this issue,” says chair Tony Polain.

The petition can be signed here. On 2 October just under 1,100 had signed, out of a target of 1,600.

Saturday’s walk cancelled

Meanwhile HGG has had to cancel the greenway walk planned for Saturday 5 October – this would have taken a circular route from Hastings rail station to Alexandra Park and Summerfields and back to the station.

However another walk, this time in the Ore Valley, is scheduled for Sunday 10 November from 1.30 to 4.30pm. It will start at Sandown Primary School on The Ridge and proceed down into Speckled Wood and on to Ore Station and Broomgrove.

On Thursday 14 November the group will hold its annual general meeting at 7-9pm at a venue yet to be confirmed.

It is also looking to recruit volunteers to lend a hand with activities such as helping on a stall at events, promoting the greenway routes in local schools and distributing maps, and joining the committee to help plan events to publicise the routes.

“These do not have to be regular commitments, but we are particularly interested in parents who have a connection with a local school and would be prepared to liaise on safer routes for children to get to school, whether on bike or on foot,” says Tony.

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