Who'll have to live with the consequences? We will!

IN one of the bleakest, more depressing financial periods in living memory the prospect of the Government stumping up the thick end of the £37million needed to build the town's new school is heartening news.
By The Newsroom
Published 19th Sep 2008, 09:31 BST
Updated 7th Jun 2018, 21:33 BST

But while the report the county director of transport and environment will put before East Sussex planning committee on Monday will doubtless bring cheer at Lewes, it is Bexhill folk who will have to live with its repercussions.

The long-overdue rebuild which will put the entire High School under one roof and on one site once more is entirely to be welcomed.

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But if the county council grants itself planning permission on Monday on the plan in its present form it is Bexhill which will pay the price in traffic congestion and needless road danger.

The director's arguments may well sway elected members from other parts of the county who have but a passing acquaintance with the town.

Bexhillians who have to use narrow and already dangerously over-crowded Gunters Lane and know its limitations and that of the surrounding roads which will service the 2,000-pupil school complex KNOW the system can't work without a great deal more money spent on a solution than is currently proposed.

How?

Because the infrastructure is already creaking at the seams now with just the Year 7 block operating from Gunters Lane.

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Monday's recommendation from the county director of transport is to grant planning permission subject to undertakings from "the applicant" - i.e. the county council itself.

These are that it will put in a toucan crossing in Gunters Lane, improve the bus stops there and in Turkey Road, improve the raised footway and pedestrian barrier in Gunters Lane between Beatrice Walk and Deans Walk (sic), put in a cycle link between Canada Way and Deans Drive and do traffic counts before and after the opening of the school at agreed locations.

All worthy contributions, no doubt, but tinkering with the problem not dealing decisively with it. And this the "solution" from the people who bequeathed Bexhill the ridiculous, dangerous and totally confusing "cycle track" in Turkey Road.

Besides, what faith can anyone locally place in a planning process which refers to a mythical Deans Walk rather than the reality of Deans Drive?

And it is reality with which Bexhillians will have to cope.

Related topics:BexhillGovernmentLewesEast Sussex