Campaigners call for traffic free town centre

Eastbourne ECO Action Network says it has been closely following the plans for pedestrianisation along Terminus Road as part of the town centre redevelopment and broadly supports the county council’s plan to see a traffic free stretch of the busy road.

East Sussex County Council recently announced the next phase of the town centre improvement plan from Bankers Corner through to the junction of Terminus Road and Langney Road.

The works will see the removal of a one-way road system between Bolton Road and Langney Road as well as the creation of a new civic space outside the Marks and Spencer store in Terminus Road.

Directors of the ECO Network – Miles Berkley, Andrew Durling, Dr Pauline von Hellermann, Roxana Caporicci, Anastasia Witts, Adam Rose and Will Callaghan – have written to East Sussex County Council calling for Terminus Road to be pedestrianised all the way up to where it meets Grand Parade.

In the letter the group says, “Eastbourne is a highly car dependent town, with 63 per cent of residents in employment travelling less than 5km to work, with 26 per cent of local CO2e emissions coming from transport.

“The current lockdown has improved local air quality, with Clean Air Eastbourne’s network of sensors recording a 70 per cent drop in damaging particulates in March 2020 compared with March 2019.”

The letter goes on, “Although we take issue with some of the details in this project, we do support the scheme’s broad environmental targets, but call for increased pedestrianisation along the full length of Terminus Road to Grand Parade. This can only be achieved by proper consultation with cycling, disability and business groups – to ensure appropriate access, loading, disabled parking, cycle paths, secure cycle racks, etc are incorporated - so as to create genuine and inclusive active travel routes through the town centre.

“Due to the lockdown there’s been a reduction of about 70 per cent in vehicle traffic, and 51 per cent of people have noticed cleaner air throughout the UK. Let’s make our town permanently healthier for the future.

“Transport Secretary Grant Shapps said recently that the UK government will propose ‘a massive increase in active travel’ as part of the response to COVID-19.

“We call upon East Sussex County Council to enable this through the creation of temporary and permanent safe cycling and walking throughout Eastbourne.

“Eastbourne ECO Action Network will continue to monitor the redevelopment plans and is open to share its expertise and experience in order to support the council in this initiative.”

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