A259 road
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A286 | |
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The A259 is a road on the south coast of England passing through Hampshire, West Sussex, East Sussex, and Kent, and is the longest Zone 2 A road in Great Britain. The main part of the road connects Brighton, Peacehaven, Eastbourne, Hastings, Rye, and Folkestone.
The road is below the expected standard of a trunk road used by HGVs and a frequent cause of congestion and disruption and has been documented as one of the most dangerous roads in South England.
Description
The A259 is a busy two-lane
The road passes through
Landmarks on the A259 include
Safety
In June 2008, a 12 miles (19 km) stretch of the A259 between Hastings and Eastbourne was named by EuroRAP as the most dangerous road in the South East of England.[2][3] The report cited 47 fatal or serious collisions from 2004 to 2006 as a key issue.[4] In 2011, the BBC named the road as the "most crash prone A road" in the UK with 7,721 crashes and 120 deaths over 12 years from 1999 to 2010, an average of 65 crashes per mile.[5]
Traffic
The road crosses the
History
What is now the A259 east of Rye was developed after the opening of the
In 1989 the government proposed to dual the road from Pevensey to Bexhill and make other corridor improvements as detailed in their Roads for Prosperity white paper and would have included the following elements: 'Guestling and Icklesham bypass', the 'Winchelsea bypass', 'Rye bypass', 'Ham Street bypass', 'A259 New Romney bypass' and the 'A259 St. Mary's Bay and Dymchurch bypass'.[9] This scheme along with many others proposed at the time were shelved in 1996-7 after a number of major road protests in the UK. Of these only the Ham Street bypass (A2070) was eventually constructed.[6]
Plans for a 'Hastings Bexhill bypass' which would have provided a dual-carriageway from the Pevensey roundabout passing to the north of Bexhill and Hastings to join the current A259 near Icklesham at a cost of £120-£130 million were rejected in 2001. The scheme, which was supported by the
Following the upgrade of the A2070 road in the late 1990s, the section between Brenzett and Folkestone was de-trunked in 2003 (i.e. removed trunk road status) and control reverted to Kent County Council.[12]
Other development proposals for the road were considered in 2004.[13]
In 2021, Eccy de Jonge, a British author, published an account of policing practices in Great Britain and elsewhere. In a chapter on road deaths, the author reveals two pedestrian deaths on the A259 that occurred in 2013, one near Seaford, East Sussex, the other in Hastings.[14]
Proposed developments
Bexhill to Hastings link road
 | This section needs to be updated. (December 2015) |
In 2008, East Sussex County Council proposed building a new link road between Bexhill and Hastings, to form a 3.5 miles (5.6 km) long road from its junction with the A259 in Bexhill, to a junction with the B2092 Queensway in Hastings.[15]
The South East Regional Assembly included the scheme within its Regional Funding Advice package.[16] This was provisionally signed off in July 2009 by the Department for Transport, with the caveat that individual schemes would still need to be assessed for value for money and compatibility with greenhouse gas emission targets.[17] Although originally estimated at £45 million, the scheme was now expected to cost over £100 million. £33 million was expected to come from developer contributions, but the County Council was unable to obtain them. "Although opportunities will be explored to seek developer contributions in the future, at the present it has been considered prudent to plan to fund all future local contributions from the County Council's capital programme".[18]
The county council said: "The driving force of the scheme is to enable essential economic regeneration for Bexhill and Hastings, which is currently compromised by the poor accessibility within and between the two towns... the Bexhill Hastings Link Road would make a major contribution to meeting the need to improve access between the towns and linking Trunk Roads which serve the area". They also identified that the scheme would provide "faster and more reliable access to the Conquest Hospital", "easier access to jobs", "create access to much-needed additional housing"; and that it would "re-route traffic from less suitable roads" and "reduce the number of accidents on local roads".[19]
A number of organisations objected to the scheme. The Hastings Alliance,
A public inquiry into the scheme started on 10 November 2009.[27]
When the Bexhill to Hastings Link Road was eventually approved, then changes also required to the A21 Baldslow / Queensway (which leads to the link road).
The entire project was completed in December 2015 at a cost of around £120 million.[28]
'£5m improvements near Shoreham'
In 2009,
References
- ^ "Highways Agency Network Map". Highways Agency. November 2011. Archived from the original on 20 January 2013. Retrieved 18 December 2012.
- ^ "Great Britain Results 2008". EuroRAP. Archived from the original on 10 February 2012.
- ^ "Britain's most dangerous roads revealed". Autotrader.
- ^ "A259 the worst road in Sussex". Eastbourne Herald. 1 July 2008. Retrieved 3 October 2019.
- ^ "Every death on every road". BBC News. 2 December 2011.
- ^ a b "No by-pass? How about a link road". Rye News. 25 November 2016. Retrieved 2 March 2018.
- ^ Cooksey, Laurie. "The Monkbretton Road Bridge". Rye's Own. Retrieved 23 November 2017.
- ^ "Search results for MT 39/241". The National Archives.
- ^ "House of Commons Hansard Debates". 13 July 1989.
- ^ "Hastings/Bexhill bypass 'flawed'". BBC News. London. 15 February 2001. Retrieved 24 March 2010.
- ^ "Ruling Splits Opinion". BBC News. London. 12 July 2001. Retrieved 24 March 2010.
- ^ "The A259 Trunk Road, (Brenzett to M20 Junction 13, Folkestone) (Detrunking) Order 2003". UK Government. Retrieved 6 June 2012.
- ^ "Highways Agency A259-A2070 Route Management Strategy" (PDF). East Sussex Council. 18 August 2019.
- ^ Eccy de Jonge - Policing and Public Trust" Exposing the Inner Uniform. Rowman & Littlefield. 2021.
- ^ "Bexhill to Hastings link road". East Sussex County Council. Retrieved 21 January 2008.
- ^ "South East England Regional Funding Advice" (PDF). South East Regional Assembly. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2 July 2010. Retrieved 10 November 2009.
- ^ "Response letter to South East England Regional Funding Advice" (PDF). Department for Transport. Archived from the original (PDF) on 6 August 2009. Retrieved 10 November 2009.
- ^ "Hastings Bexhill Major Scheme Business Case" (PDF). East Sussex County Council. Archived from the original (PDF) on 23 February 2012. Retrieved 10 November 2009.
- ^ "Design and Access statement (section 2.1.1 - 174mb)" (PDF). East Sussex County Council. Archived from the original (PDF) on 15 October 2011. Retrieved 10 November 2009.
- ^ "Hastings Alliance". Hastings Alliance.
- ^ "Supporters". Hastings Alliance. December 2010.
- ^ "Prosperity for Hastings" (PDF). South East Regional Assembly. Archived from the original (PDF) on 23 February 2012.
- ^ "Reject Bexhill-Hastings link road". Campaign for Better Transport. Archived from the original on 24 July 2011.
- ^ "Bexhill to Hastings Link Road". Woodland Trust. Archived from the original on 7 May 2009.
- ^ "Like a bad penny. why Friends of the Earth opposes the Bexhill" (PDF). Friends of the Earth. Retrieved 9 November 2009.
- ^ "Bexhill Hastings Link Road". Sussex Wildlife Trust. Archived from the original on 19 August 2013. Retrieved 19 August 2013.
- ^ "Bexhill-Hastings link road cash sign-off slated by campaigners". planningresource.co.uk.
- ^ "Hastings Bexhill £120m link road opens amid protests". BBC News. 17 December 2015.
- ^ "Councils vow to revive Shoreham Harbour plans".
External links
- A259 Folkestone-Havant – From SABRE's "Roads By 10".
- Hastings Alliance Opposition to the Bexhill to Hastings Link Road
- Road Safety Foundation
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