What's the plan ?

Our January 2024 newsletter reports on the search for National Highways and TfSE's plans for the A27 between Lewes and Polegate.....

2/01/2024

September Newsletter

TfSE's dynamic duo take to podcasting.....

19/09/23

July newsletter

More and more organisations thinking again on road building - but not National Highways

Our May newsletter

A change in the East Sussex political landscape may produce some fresh thinking about roads and new housing.

10/5/2023

Our March Newsletter

The Transport Secretary Mark Harper has pushed back a decision on a new dual A27 between Lewes and Polegate, for perhaps five years. It's hard to imagine any business case improving during that time; the best decision would be to stop wasting money on this project, and invest in more safety improvements on the existing road, much better alternatives in rail and bus services, and a cohesive plan for walking and cycling right across the area between Eastbourne and Brighton. Even better, plan new housing and work developments in places served by existing transport links.

Backburner ?

Attracting fewer headlines than HS2 yesterday, the Transport Secretary has put a whole range of spending plans on the back-burner, blaming inflation. The Lower Thames Crossing, due to start construction in 2024, has been delayed for two years - current estimates of cost range up to £8.2bn. Even closer to home, the environmentally-damaging A27 Arundel Bypass has been put back into plans for 2025-2030 'to allow time to ensure stakeholders’ views are fully considered.'

Those of us worried about a new dual carriageway between Lewes and Polegate, in the 'pipeline' for 2025-30, now face another unnecessary wait for clarity. The Transport Department said "Schemes earmarked for RIS3 (2025-30) will continue to be developed and considered for inclusion within RIS 4, which will run from 2030-2035. Given many of these schemes were previously expected towards the end of RIS 3, this extra time will help ensure better planned and efficient schemes can be deployed more effectively."

Meanwhile, capital spend on active travel has been cut for the next two years.

Readers will note that we are due a General Election by January 2025.

10/3/2023

Maintain and improve

Here's some sensible thinking from the Transport Planning Society, submitted to the Transport Select Committee reviewing plans for the next five-year tranche of investment in the 'Strategic Road Network', known as RIS3. (RIS3's pipeline of projects includes the possibility of a new offline dual carriageway across historic landscapes and rich bio-diversity between Lewes and Polegate) The Society says:

● RIS3 should not just be about expansion of the Strategic Road Network – greater value could be achieved by maintaining and improving the existing road assets. RIS3 must also consider National Highways’ responsibility to ensure resilience of the strategic road network in the face of climate events.

● Working in closer cooperation with local transport and planning authorities could mean a break from capacity increases to demand management, mode and destination switching, in support of different ways of making local journeys off the SRN.

● The reappraisal of RIS2 and RIS3 schemes must reflect the now well-recognised uncertainty around future travel demand growth..... The Society finds it inconceivable that all the Department for Transport's six Common Analytical Scenarios calculate future traffic growth as the basis for appraisal.

● RIS3 needs to embrace increasing car occupancy and encouraging of active and public transport use as Government targets in, for example, the Transport Decarbonisation Plan, and facilitate this where possible. We would like to see a percentage of the overall RIS3 spend committed to active mode improvements; and a mandate that every RIS scheme has an explicit walking and cycling component, scrutinised by Active Travel England.

● A more effective rail freight offering may be preferable over expansion of the strategic road network in RIS3.

22/02/23

A new strategy for our times

The panel of experts that helped the Welsh Government with their review of road building plans has produced a very useful 4x4 grid to filter potential schemes by looking at purposes and conditions....

Let's ask the Transport Secretary to adopt it in a similar review of RIS3 plans....

Limited ?

The Transport Select Committee took evidence on plans for RIS3, the next tranche of spending on the UK's strategic road network, in the Commons yesterday. Transport Permanent Secretary Dame Bernadette Kelly told them “The headroom for new projects in RIS3 will be very limited.”

DfT director general for roads, places and environment group Emma Ward went on “The makeup of RIS3 may well look a bit different. It is likely that the headroom for enhancements projects is likely to be less. We also have an ageing network, so the importance of renewals and maintenance actually increases over time. So I would expect the balance of RIS3 to look somewhat different to RIS2.”

National Highways CEO Nick Harris said "“What is really, really important – certainly from my point of view – is we’re looking after an ageing set of infrastructure. More than 70% of our assets, as we get to the beginning of RIS3, are going to be more than 45 years old. So, bridges that were built in the 1960s and 1970s, as well as roads, are increasingly in need of renewal or replacement. And that will all be in the plan.”

2/02/2023

Rethink time

An expert panel of seven specialist professors has joined the growing calls for a re-think about RIS3 - the code name for capital investment in the UK's strategic road network from 2025 to 2030.

The Road Investment Scrutiny Panel is led by Glenn Lyons, Professor of Future Mobility at the University of the West of England. They want the Government to publish a forecast of the change in vehicle miles needed to keep on track with carbon reduction targets, and make clear who is responsible for delivery.

They also want to see more effort to deliver bio-diversity enhancement throughout the highways estate, and avoidance of so-called 'biodiversity offsetting' when construction threatens rare or slow-growing habitats.

Their report calls for evidence that health and economic benefits claimed for road schemes are realistic, and more balanced scrutiny of that evidence is applied at every stage of decision making.

You can read the full report at uwe-repository.worktribe.com/output/10295773

17/01/2023

January newsletter

Please share as widely as you can....

04/01/2023

Here come the consultants

National Highways have appointed engineering and construction consultants Atkins and Jacobs to develop the business plan for major new roads over the five years from 2025.

Atkins is a British company now owned by the Canadian SNC-Lavalin Group. Jacobs is a global company headquartered in Dallas; one of its longest-running projects in the UK is the much-delayed nuclear reactor at Hinckley Point. The joint venture will be supported by accountants PwC.

Jacobs People & Places Solutions Europe Senior Vice President Kate Kenny. "Drawing on our knowledge of the network, combined with our data and digital capabilities in transportation, we are further supporting National Highways to find ways to better safeguard and enhance the environment, improve road user experience and connect communities."

PwC U.K. Public Sector Transport Leader Grant Klein added: "This is an opportunity to help set out balanced and socially responsible plans for part of the U.K.'s critical national infrastructure, which will provide framing for the strategic road network beyond RIS3. Supporting Atkins and Jacobs we're excited about helping National Highways to deliver its purpose focussed on connecting the country and maximising its environmental and social impact."

On completion, the work goes to the Department for Transport before it makes a final investment decision in late 2024, with the delivery of RIS3 due to start in April 2025.

16/12/2022

Season's greetings

Our December newsletter

7/12/2022

The A27 flooding at the new junction for Charleston, November 2022

Taking flooding seriously

It will come as little surprise to residents of East Sussex that we need to spend more to prevent more and more houses, businesses, roads and rail links being flooded.

The National Infrastructure commission says the problem across the UK requires spending of £12bn spread over 30 years. The Commission wants to see the Environment Agency overseeing joint local plans for high risk areas, developed in partnership with local authorities and water companies.

National Infrastructure commissioner Jim Hall said: “It’s clear that faced with more intense rainfall and increased urbanisation, we need to start taking this type of flooding far more seriously.

“The solution is clear – reducing the amount of water flowing into drains, whilst also improving the capacity of those drains. That means stopping urban creep from increasing the amount of storm water that drainage systems have to cope with and giving nature more opportunities to hold on to excess water, as well as targeted investment to ensure sewers can cope with growing pressures.

“While sustained investment is needed, the estimated additional costs are relatively modest. At least as important is a more joined-up approach to owning and acting on the problem.” And perhaps National Highways joining in ?

29/11/2022

Wasted work ?

The National Audit Office has issued a range of warnings about the way National Highways are shaping up major projects for 2025-30. This is the third five-year period since George Osborne said money raised from Vehicle Excise Duty should be spent on major roads.

The NAO notes that £11.5bn of this "RIS3" round will be taken up by schemes that have overshot the 2020-25 period - and, by the way 76% of those schemes are now deemed 'low' or 'poor value for money.' Not surprising, given that they've doubled in cost since Highways' first estimates in 2020. The NAO also points out the projects are 'unbalanced geographically', with most of the spend in the South East, South West and East of England.

National Highways is spending money developing 31 schemes in the RIS3 pipeline, including more than £6m on proposals for a new dual carriageway between Lewes and Polegate, without knowing the size of the total pot the Government is prepared to spend on the road network from 2025. The NAO says " Neither DfT nor HM Treasury were able to tell us when the size of the budget would be known. However, DfT currently plans to publish the draft third road investment strategy, which will include the budget, in May 2023. In our view, early agreement between HM Treasury with DfT will reduce the risk of wasted work being undertaken on projects in the pipeline."

25/11/2022

Keith Glazier and Rupert Clubb, of TfSE;

Below, Andy Rhind, Department for Transport

The road to ....

After a clear and straightforward public consultation asked for more emphasis on net zero, public transport, active travel, bio-diversity and the environment, the two men at the top of Transport for The South East are ploughing on with unchanged road priorities in their Strategic Investment Plan.

Chair Keith Glazier and Lead Officer Rupert Clubb listened impassively on Zoom, as Board members considering their re-draft asked for more emphasis on road maintenance, bringing bus and rail services up to basic levels, an upfront commitment to 10% net biodiversity gain. Some bravely pushed back on their officers' assertion that "All roads are multi-modal". Nonetheless, the two got their plan through with one abstention - Councillor Jamie Lloyd from Brighton.

The tone of the meeting was set by Department for Transport civil servant Andy Rhind, who said the Strategic Investment Plan was "a fabulous bit of work....and we look forward to receiving it"

So the amended plan now goes back to local councils for adoption or rejection, before coming back to the TfSE Board in February 2023. That gives us another opportunity to tell our elected representatives, at local, district and county level, that the plan is simply misguided, and TfSE have simply not listened. Please take time to write to them, ideally before Christmas.

15/11/2022

Ignored

The next meeting of the Transport for the South East Board comes on November 14th, and asks for approval of their slightly re-drafted Strategic Investment Plan.

The Board's professional advisers have dismissed the results of the recent public consultation, to which many of our supporters contributed. The survey showed, by any measure, a majority against new road schemes, and a majority for a revised approach which invests in sustainable public transport and active travel, and a more credible route to net zero.

The consultants have fiddled with the introductory wording, but there is not a single change in the schemes they are supporting. Simply asserting that 'all highways packages are multi-modal' will do nothing to avert climate crisis.

Please find a way to contact the chair of TfSE Keith Glazier before Monday, urging him to reject this re-draft.

10/11/2022

November Newsletter

...and a new survey to complete !

3/11/2022

Thank you

Thank you to everyone who took the time to contribute to Transport For The South East's complicated consultation on their draft new-road-heavy Strategic Investment Plan. They've had 638 responses, 80% from individuals, and a good proportion from East Sussex.

This is their chart of 'Key Themes' emerging from the responses, and, if they take them as seriously as they should, there's a lot of re-writing to be done before they produce a new draft by 14th November.

1/10/22

From National Highways A12 Consultation site

Road economics

We note that National Highways is moving forward with plans to rebuild and alter 15 miles of the A12 in Essex, at an estimated £1.21bn.

The road would be widened to three lanes each way, with two new by-passes and a number of other junctions changed.

Project Director Phil Davie is unabashed about why it's needed: "The scale of the work we aim to undertake will transform one of the busiest road links in the East of England, helping to save road users... a significant amount of time across their weekly commute."

Presumably he hasn't heard the Government strictures about getting housing and employment aligned with transport investment. The latest published Benefit/Cost Ratio is 1.9, which, at best, is described by the Transport Department as 'medium'.

27/09/22

September newsletter

Please share with others !

16/09/22

Grosvenor Estates' plans for 2,500 new houses on 314 acres of agricultural land in Hailsham, East Sussex

No new major roads for new housing

Former Transport Secretary Grant Shapps has left behind a consultation which could see an end to new major roads for new housing developments. Its part of a paper proposing a range of guidelines to National Highways about the Strategic Road Network, with responses closing tomorrow.....

New development should be facilitating a reduction in the need to travel by private car and focused on locations that are or can be made sustainable. In this regard, recent research on the location of development found that walking times between new homes and a range of key amenities regularly exceeded 30 minutes, reinforcing car dependency. Development in the right places and served by the right sustainable infrastructure delivered alongside or ahead of occupancy should have no significant impact on the SRN. This is a key principle for planning for development in all local authority areas and will be an expectation of the Company.

Bill Rogers, of sustainable transport group SCATE East Sussex says "This should halt all consideration of a new offline dual A27 between Lewes and Polegate. The alleged economic value of this scheme relies entirely on providing developers with a road to support vast new commuter estates in Wealden and Eastbourne. We look forward to the new Transport Secretary's support for this policy. "

The Strategic Road Network and the delivery of sustainable development

https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/1093964/circular-02-2013-update.pdf

14/09/22

Time to recalculate

Here's news of at least one bit of National Highways showing some common sense. The A5036 Port of Liverpool Access scheme (budgeted at up to £335m) threatens to put an offline dual carriageway through a local country park, the Rimrose Valley. The latest scheme update reads....

At the time of our last update [Nov 21], National Highways was working to understand the impact of the pandemic on the scheme. Changes in trade patterns following Brexit, initiatives like the Freeport, local employment and commuting habits since the pandemic struck in early 2020, are also likely to have had a significant impact.

An important part of developing our scheme design is modelling how our proposals affect traffic on and around the A5036. We need to update our traffic modelling to take account of the impact of all these changes and will be working closely with Liverpool City Region partners to do that over the coming months.

This detailed and important work is likely to take approximately 12 months to complete. We will not be in a position to publish an updated project timeline, including when we intend to formally consult the local community and the wider general public on our proposals, until we have progressed our traffic modelling work.

09/08/22

Action required

Here's our August Newsletter. Now it's over to YOU to tell Transport for the South East what you think about their Strategic Investment Plan.

Click here to go straight to it.

1/08/2022

Have a word....

Transport for the South East is a 'sub-national transport body' not yet granted full statutory authority. Apparently backed by widespread consultation, its new Strategic Investment Plan has been proudly endorsed by the East Sussex Conservative Group, who think the plan is tip-top stuff. Their headline take: New integrated transport proposal for the south east will bring "new jobs, new homes and new opportunities".

Transport for the South East (TfSE), is chaired by East Sussex Conservative County Council Leader, Keith Glazier.

The plans contain 91 new road schemes, and £13bn of spending on roads. Were you asked about that ? Tell them what you think here:

https://transportforsoutheast.uk.engagementhq.com/transport-for-the-south-east-strategic-investment-plan-consultation

30/06/22

Road fixation

Transport for the South East have just gone public with their Strategic Investment Plan. Whilst there are schemes for rail, bus, other transit and active travel, they cling to road building, forecasting spend of over £7 billion in the immediate years ahead. And for the future - a £2bn toll tunnel, running for 5km under Worthing by 2045.

Meanwhile, the average price of a litre of ordinary petrol is heading to £2, construction price inflation was running at 8% in March, and the Chairman of the Environment Agency warned this month that "in some places the right answer – in economic, strategic and human terms – will have to be to move communities away from danger rather than to try and protect them from the inevitable impacts of a rising sea level."

There's a public consultation and it's now online. It's vital that you tell TfSE how wrong this direction of travel is. Firmly, but politely.

20/06/2022

Then and now

In April 2022 global consultants WSP signed a contract with National Highways to work on the delivery of its net zero commitments, including zero emission road travel by 2050

In September 2018, WSP presented a strategic outline business case for the A27 between Lewes and Polegate with no calculations on emissions, and said a new dual carriageway would be 'value for money'. That same business case is still being used by National Highways today

17/06/22

June newsletter

Here's our latest update. Help us grow our supporter base; get friends and family to email info@scateeastsussex.com, and we'll add them to our mailing list.

13/06/2022

Real change

Some of the ways we changed our lives during the pandemic seem to be sticking.

Statistics from the Department for Transport show that, over weekdays in May, cycle journeys were up 38% on a pre-pandemic base week in February 2020. Car journeys across weekdays in May were down 6% on the February 2020 data.

We have asked National Highways to re-base all their economic calculations when considering their options for the A27 between Lewes and Polegate. Their fundamental Outline Business Case is fatally flawed.

Join our campaign with a simple email to info@scateeastsussex.com

1/6/2022

"Roads matter"

National Highways CEO Nick Harris is pressing ahead with plans for more road spending, with an initial business plan to cover April 2025 to 31 March 2030 due to be published this summer. The A27 Lewes to Polegate review is 'in the pipeline' for this third major stage of spending on the strategic road network, known as RIS3.

He's been speaking to a transport policy forum in Westminster: "Looking at our plans for the next road period it's clear that we're going to be challenged very hard on our impact both on the environment and on carbon."

“We're seeing rapidly rising expectations on the environment, and challenges with getting new schemes through the planning process. We'd been very successful as an organization in getting large schemes through the planning process. But that has become harder. We've been working across government to move forward and solve that.”

“We're very interested in the possibility of encouraging more vehicle occupancy, using the right mode for the right journey, and other technology solutions that provide capacity with minimum environmental impact. I think these things are incredibly important if we're to have a future for roads and road improvements. Roads matter, and they will continue to matter in supporting the economy and our lives.”

31/05/2022

Change

Arup, the consultants who've been awarded £6m to look at the A27 Lewes to Polegate, were named "Britain's Most Admired Company" in 2021. Their new policy, Work Unbound, helped win it, allowing employees more choice. Key points:

Flexible days and working hours across the week – giving UK employees the ability to work their hours flexibly over the course of Monday to Sunday, meaning staff could opt to work over the weekend

Working from home – working remotely is to become a permanent option, as UK employees can choose their place of work for up to three days per week, with two days spent in one of the Arup offices.

Let's hope they acknowledge new ways of working when they assess the alleged 'economic benefits' of a new dual carriageway to serve Government-imposed housing targets that look set to swamp East Sussex.....

24/05/2022

£1bn barrier broken

The likely cost of a new dual carriageway between Lewes and Polegate has soared past the £1bn mark.

Previous 'value for money' calculations had assumed a price of around of £590m for 16km of new road. But National Highways most recent contract, signed this week, for 5.5km of dual carriageway to complete the 'missing link' of the A417 between Gloucester and Swindon, has come in at £460m.

Bill Rogers, chairman of SCATE East Sussex, says "By our calculations, this pushes a new A27 to £1.345bn - the project is at least as complex and sensitive. We said back in 2020, it would cost over £1bn - now we have real world data to back our estimate".

"It makes a nonsense of the Highways business case. Do we really want to spend this sort of money so that developers can infill green fields across Wealden with posh new houses we don't really need in this area ?"

"There's still time for the Department of Transport to save some of the £6m being spent on road consultants trying to stand up this. It might, at least, be used for much-needed bus and rail improvements in our area".

24/04/2022

Update 4/4/2022

April Newsletter

Update 30/03/22

After a SCATE East Sussex Freedom of Information request, National Highways have released detailed calculations behind their current £75m improvement projects on the existing A27 between Lewes and Polegate.

The vast bulk of the 'value' of this bundle of works, including junction changes at Willington, Wilmington and Berwick, is in improved journey times - saving 5 minutes plus in some case - and improved reliability.

Which begs the question of how much it can be improved by similar work, say, at Beddingham and in general widening, for much less than the £1bn a new dual carriageway would cost.

Click to see The Economic Appraisal

Click to see The Modelling and Appraisal Report

Click to see The Economic Output Update

Click to see The Transport Data Package

Click to see The Transport Forecast Package

Click to see The Benefits Register

Click to see The Transport Model Package

These are detailed documents, and we need the hive mind of SCATE and our supporters to check the details, so that we can make our case for further improvements robust. Please email thoughts/comments/insights to info@scateeastsussex.com

Update 9/03/22

From Bill Rogers: I spent just over an hour yesterday evening in a online briefing from National Highways about the A27 Lewes to Polegate project. There are to be four such exercises - with groups representing "Environment", "Community", "Transport" and "Business/agriculture". There were six or seven from their side; we had representatives of horse owners, ramblers, cyclists, a bus operator, and the redoutable Chris Todd of the Transport Action Network.

They call these meetings "Stakeholder Referencing Groups". They say there will be one more formal round of meetings before they bring forward proposals 'in the spring/summer next year", but channels are open, and they claim to welcome input - indeed there was praise for the work of Oliver Harwood in highlighting emerging issues they should consider.

I was assured there was no political Stakeholder Reference Group, and they wouldn't be briefing local politicians, down to parish council level, until after this preliminary round of meetings.

Little new emerged; "very early stages" "no option on or off the table" ""not all RIS3 schemes will be approved" "if it's not value for money, we won't recommend it" were familiar phrases. However some other traditional Highways language still needs correction: concerns about "capacity", "congestion" and "collisions".

I asked about one Highways objective in their slide-stack "Environmental resilience to climate change" - one of their technical team recognised that they were working in an area of flood concern.

Chris and I asked about modal work; Project Sponsor Alan Sharp said whilst their job was about advising on roads, they would revisit that later in the project.

I'll post more when I get their minutes.

New chair

SCATE East Sussex has a new chairman. Bill Rogers, from Ripe, will lead the sustainable transport umbrella group, as Oliver Harwood moves to Cambridge.

"This will be a busy year for us. Our part of Sussex is under threat from developer-led housing infill on a massive scale, and National Highways is doing just what the big builders desperately need - plotting a £1bn-plus dual carriageway at the foot of the South Downs, funded by our money".

Residents in Ringmer, Uckfield, Hailsham and Berwick are being encircled by greenfield planning applications for new housing they don't want or need, and local politicians are finally telling national politicians this has to stop, or there'll be consequences in the May elections."

We have the new Wealden Local Plan to come, and National Highways have started talking to stakeholders - not residents - about options for a new road that's all about speed, not real economic growth. It's as if they haven't heard the world of work has changed for good. This is the time to preserve our landscape and biodiversity through investment in sustainable transport options"

Notes: You can contact Bill via info@scateeastsussex.com, or on 07710 738963. SCATE's members include The Council for The Protection of Rural England, the Sussex Wildlife Trust, Cycle Lewes, and many more.

National Highways, previously known as Highways England, have kickstarted yet another attempt to make the case for a brand new dual carriageway between Lewes and Polegate, by seeking access for their consultants to sites across some 18 square miles of treasured East Sussex landscape.

Residents have been getting letters to allow teams from Arup to carry out 'non-intrusive surveys' of wildlife, habitat, landscape, archaeological features, drainage systems, as well as traffic volumes and movements. In the letter, Project Manager Tom Rankin says "The surveys will inform the environmental statement, planning application, environmental mitigation and design of the project". Access is sought from 15th November "until Spring 2024".

We have asked for publication of a full map of the survey area. "It's so disappointing that the old-school road builders of Highways England have re-started this fundamentally misguided project just days before the world Climate Conference. You don't need a survey to tell you that 16 kilometres of earth, concrete and tarmac would devastate the environment, ecology, bio-diversity and landscape of this treasured area.

"The floods of recent weeks, and the raw sewage that's come up from drains across Wealden, are a living reminder that you mess with the drainage balance of the Cuckmere, the Ouse, Glynde Reach and Laughton Levels at your peril. Future generations will be amazed if National Highways pretend there's any way to mitigate this sort of irreversible damage".

If you've received a letter, and would like to join our email list, write to info@scateeastsussex.com, and we'll keep you in touch.

In our masthead, a view from Mount Caburn, just east of Lewes, over the ancient weald land at the foot of the South Downs. Once an arm of the sea, it's been farmed in much the same way since Roman times, when it became the bread-basket for the legions that landed at Pevensey. The wildlife, of course, goes back further, and there are over 800 species of fauna and flora, some in Sites of Special Scientific Interest.

It's across this landscape that local and national politicians are proposing to build an new stretch of dual carriageway, on embankments and probably stilts, in order that drivers can save up to 9 minutes travelling between the rush-hour gridlocks in Lewes and Eastbourne. Highways England's mid range estimate is £530m - we believe it will cost close to £1bn.

This is a website set up by a concerned group of local organisations and local residents, working as the East Sussex branch of SCATE, the South Coast Alliance for Transport and the Environment. We are fighting these proposals, and invite you read further, to see what's at risk here. And if you'd like to be kept up-to-date with our campaign, email info@scateeastsussex.com.

HIGHWAYS ENGLAND

Here's a link to their most recent Business Case for a new offline A27 between Lewes and Eastbourne, completed in 2018.

The sustainable A27 alternative

Our latest pamphlet, demonstrating how you can make the existing A27 between Lewes and Polegate safer and more reliable, is proving popular.

You can download it to read, print and share here.

See what we stand to lose

Our video takes just six minutes of your time. We hope it will make Highways England and our politicians think again. Please feel free to share it on Youtube, social media, etc.

SCATE objectives

Promote sustainable transport solutions (for personal travel and freight)
Seek better land use, infrastructure and transport planning to reduce the need to travel and dependence on the private car
Oppose damaging road-building schemes along the south coast corridor
Ensure that the environment is properly valued (for its contribution to the economy and human health) and that full consideration in particular is given to impacts on landscape, biodiversity and climate change in all decision making.

We want to raise £5,000 to help prevent the devastation of our Sussex countryside by the planned dual carriageway between Lewes and Polegate .

We need finance for more independent and professional analysis to counter the slanted arguments already put out by the road lobby; there will be more to come. Funding will also help us spread our messages more effectively - and we need to do it fast. Help us to fight this terrible scheme. Every penny subscribed will help us preserve a beautiful stretch of English countryside. Please give generously and pass it on.

Please contribute by clicking to go to our Justgiving.com page

STARTING FROM THE WRONG PLACE

Here's a link to our new 12-page report, showing the flaws in Highways England's business case for a new dual carriageway between Lewes and Polegate.

A27 Commentary for website.pdf

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