You must be choking

Local campaigners recently united to raise awareness of the risks to air quality by the building of the Queensway Gateway road. Earlier this year, following the case Gabriel Carlyle brought to the High Court, Hastings Borough Council – prior to the court case – agreed to withdraw plans for the road, as it would breach current UK and EU directives on air pollution. HOT’s Zelly Restorick reports.

In April of this year, the law firm, ClientEarth, won their case in the Supreme Court, fighting for our right to breathe clean air. Unanimous in their decision, the Supreme Court Justices stated: “The new Government, whatever its political complexion, should be left in no doubt as to the need for immediate action to address this issue.”

Poisonous pollution in the air

ClientEarth Lawyer Alan Andrews said: “Air pollution kills tens of thousands of people in this country every year. We brought our case because we have a right to breathe clean air and today the Supreme Court has upheld that right.”

“This ruling will benefit everyone’s health but particularly children, older people and those with existing health conditions like asthma and heart and lung conditions.

“The next Government, regardless of the political party or parties which take power, is now legally bound to take urgent action on this public health crisis. Before next week’s election all political parties need to make a clear commitment to policies which will deliver clean air and protect our health.”

Local campaigners say ‘no’

Wearing masks and carrying placards, people joined together on Sedlescombe Road North in St Leonards (the A21), site of some of the worst predicted pollution.

“We gathered with our banners and masks to say NO to the Queensway Gateway road”, said a CHDs spokesperson, “no to more air pollution; no to increased carbon emissions; no to the destruction of Hollington Valley; and no to yet another of SeaChange’s wasteful projects paid for with public money.”

ClientEarth website here.

Information about air quality management in Hastings – and Bexhill here.

More information from the Combe Haven Defenders’ campaign here.

Pop-up camp

The CHDs have organised a pop-up camp in Hollington in September – and invite you to come along, support their campaign, ask questions, unite with like minded people – and suggest that instead of a bottle, bring a tree for planting. Invitation here.

A suggestion for the Nonseum

Thinking outside of the box, the Combe Haven Defenders have sent the plans for the North Queensway Innovation Park Access Road to a European museum, suggesting it be added to their collection of useless and unnecessary objects.

A CHD spokesperson said: “Campaigners have submitted the £1.5m, 51 metre access road to SeaChange’s North Queensway Innovation Park in Hastings to Nonseum, the Museum of Useless Objects in Austria. The museum, near Vienna, is a repository for ‘inventions that we do not need’; exhibits include a teabag anchor, sleeping bags for bats and a portable zebra crossing.

“The dead end road onto the site from Queensway was built in 2013 using a £1.5m grant from the South East Local Enterprise Partnership (SELEP). The total cost of the scheme was projected to be £32m. SELEP claimed that the scheme could create 865 jobs. SeaChange suggested it would create 700 jobs, a figure it later revised downwards to just 300. To date, not a single job has been created.

“Anthony Bradnum, seen here posting the submission, said, ‘We submitted SeaChange’s £1.5m, 51m road to Nonseum because it is clearly a useless object that we do not need. SeaChange received large amounts of public money to build this road, and destroyed an important wildlife site, on the promise of jobs for the people of Hastings. Well over two years later, not a single job has been created and the access road is quite literally a road to nowhere.'”

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