8. Keeping East Sussex connected
Introduction
In this chapter, the primary focus is about supporting people and businesses in getting where they need to go, quickly and reliably - specifically, longer distance highway, railway and bus schemes are of importance as well as freight.
Click here for a larger version of Figure 8 'Key Schemes for Theme D' in pdf format [1.7 MB] [pdf]
A full list of schemes presented in this map is available in Appendix B.
Support sustainable economic growth
The aspiration is for shared prosperity, fairness and environmental enhancements contributed to by a high-quality transport network. It is aimed to:
- Facilitate the efficient movement of goods and people.
- Contribute to reducing deprivation and inequality through improved accessibility to education, training and employment.
- Attract and retain businesses and a skilled workforce in the county.
- Enhance sustainable access to key visitor and cultural destinations.
- Engage with the local planning authorities to deliver sustainable housing and employment growth identified in their Local Plans.
Facilitating strategic passenger and freight movements
Given the county’s most populated communities are located on the coast, east-west connectivity to, for and through these communities is important to the county. This connectivity faces many transport challenges including uncompetitive rail journey times between key urban centres and a highway network that is constrained by single carriageway routes (for example, A27 and A259) which increases journey times when demand for these routes is high.
Similar highway constraints are seen on north-south routes serving primarily local centres such as Uckfield, Crowborough, and Heathfield as well as rural communities. The A21 and A22 both serve a strategic north-south function but also pass through the centre of local communities (for example, Hurst Green on the A21, Halland and Lower Dicker on the A22). These constraints limit the certainty of journey times provided by the route and can present safety issues within the villages and towns it passes through. Full north-south rail alternatives are confined to the eastern (Hastings – Tonbridge line) and western sides (Brighton mainline) of the county, with a connection north from Uckfield, also serving Buxted, Crowborough and Eridge, towards London.
A multi-modal strategy ensures focus is given to speeding up services on the East-Coastway line (running from Brighton to Lewes and then on to Eastbourne, and Hastings), leveraging advances in technology to run more frequent services, targeted infrastructure improvements to overcome bottlenecks at key railway junctions, and utilising bus-based mass transit for some intra-urban trips and active travel for local trips. A key challenge will be minimising disruption to highway trips at level crossings, particularly on busy sections of line (for example, Hampden Park in Eastbourne, Polegate High Street).
Strategic and local highway improvements will be targeted where they also accommodate and enhance bus and/or active travel provision through, for example, delivering bus priority and/or segregated active travel corridors. In addition, highway improvements will also be targeted on where there are safety concerns requiring a need for intervention, or where highways are required to support strategic freight movements.
Growing service and employment catchments
The largest employment sites are located in the urban areas along the coast. However, residents in rural communities currently have limited access to these employment opportunities with public transport between rural areas and urban coastal areas often being infrequent or providing slow or unreliable journey times. There are opportunities to improve provision of transport to access employment, education or training helping to maintain and grow a skilled workforce and thriving local economy.
Enhancements to rail services focused on these major centres as well as inter-urban bus service improvements will ensure that residents of this area can more sustainably access employment and education. Bus service enhancements on the A21 will improve public transport connectivity between rural locations along this route to Hastings, where employment opportunities are greater, but also where there are onward rail and bus connections to other major towns.
By investing in a joined-up transport network, partners want economic opportunities to be available to all and to provide employers with the biggest possible opportunity to attract the required talent. Not only that, since the pandemic attendance at workplace premises is likely to be a hybrid set up (84% of the workforce nationally still attend the workplace during the working week) so East Sussex employers still have a need for workers who can get to them within a reasonable commuting time.
Tourism
East Sussex has a range of tourist and cultural destinations that require connectivity to thrive. East Sussex welcomes tourists from all areas of the UK and abroad; enhancements to strategic transport infrastructure will support a growth in visitor numbers and improve the visitor experience, therefore extending stays and encouraging repeat visits to the benefit of the economy.
This plan includes interventions to enhance connectivity from beyond the county including linking Hastings, Bexhill, and Eastbourne by high-speed rail through upgrades to the Marshlink line (Hastings-Ashford) and improvements at Ashford International to enable access to the High Speed 1 (HS1) link (Ashford - St Pancras) alongside improvements to bus services from Gatwick Airport to the County. Equally, proposed interventions support sustainable access to key tourist destinations including bus service improvements and active travel linking to the South Downs National Park and High Weald National Landscape.
Strengthen the resilience of our transport networks
A transport system that is more capable of recovering from unexpected disruptions (including events caused by climate change), reducing transport delays will realise this objective. The aim is to:
- Improve journey time reliability for people and businesses.
- Enable transport journeys to be resilient, flexible, and adaptable and recover quickly from emergencies and events.
- Improve the resilience of highway and other transport infrastructure and assets.
Reducing disruption and delay
This strategy captures the latest plans by Network Rail in their Rail Network Enhancement Pipeline. East Sussex County Council continue to support the reinstatement of the railway between Uckfield and Lewes to provide an alternative railway route from London to the south coast, providing resilience to the Brighton main line, whilst also supporting local connectivity between communities in East Sussex along the line via Lewes. Proposals include extending HS1 to Rye, Hastings, Bexhill, and Eastbourne via the Marshlink line (Ashford - Hastings), which will improve journey times between these coastal communities and London and connectivity to Kent, in addition to providing a viable attractive alternative to reach the East Sussex coast during periods of disruption on the rail network.
Some of the improvements to improve services to/from East Sussex occur outside of the county. For example, a series of capacity enhancements on the Brighton Main line and remodelling of the rail network in the East Croydon area will increase the number of services that can be accommodated between London and the South Coast (including to East Sussex), whilst also providing more resilient and reliable journeys during any disruption.
The major roads in East Sussex carry both strategic (longer distance) and local traffic, which can cause considerable delays in and around urban areas where speeds and/or volumes of traffic are constrained and impact the effective operation of local buses. This plan proposes several highways interventions to separate these strategic and local trips to support faster journey time and safety. The Uckfield Bypass will reduce congestion on this section of the A22, whilst also enabling opportunities to improve public transport and active travel journeys within Uckfield. Also included in the plan are further improvements to the A27 corridor between Lewes and Polegate as well as junction improvements to the A22 at Hailsham and Polegate/Stone Cross.
Flexibility and choice
To provide flexibility and choice, the County Council will need to work with partners and stakeholders to provide a range of transport choices for residents and visitors, enabling them to pick the one that best suits their needs. Allowing users to plan their journeys both ahead of travel and ‘live’ (for example, during any disruption), increasing consumer perception and confidence in travelling using public and integrated transport.
Emergency and events
The plan is for a transport network that is more resilient to incidents and the impacts of a changing climate, collisions and other events that disrupt transport networks, as referred to in Chapter 5 – Tackling climate change and enhancing the local environment. Resilience ensures alternatives for users during periods of disruption (either by same or alternative modes) and networks that can accommodate future growth and changing travel needs and patterns.
The County Council will work in partnership with Network Rail (and Great British Railways once formally established), National Highways, Sustrans and Transport for the South East in ensuring the strategic transport network in and serving the county continues to develop, evolve, and expand to future travel needs. At a local level the County Council will work with local communities and stakeholders to minimise inconvenience on local communities during periods of disruption. By designing a transport network fit to face any issues, the aim is to provide reliability to improve consumer service and retention.
Delivering these objectives
These objectives will be delivered through the following policy areas:
- Policy D1: Strategic connectivity.
- Policy D2: Freight and international gateways.
- Policy D3: The needs of business and the visitor economy.
- Policy D4: Supporting sustainable development and development control.
- Policy D5: Parking.
- Policy D6: Highways maintenance and asset management.
Policy D1: Strategic connectivity
Context
East Sussex is poorly connected to the rest of the country, relative to other areas in the south east, by both road and rail. Supporting inclusive socio-economic growth, means the need to overcome the correlation that exists between the areas with the poorest strategic connectivity and the most deprived areas of East Sussex.
By improving local (within East Sussex and its immediate environs) and regional (within the south east) strategic connectivity to/from areas of the county which are most deprived, partners can continue to build towards a future where all members of the community contribute to, and benefit from the area’s growth and success.
Issues/opportunities
The East Coastway line performs a dual function of serving local and shorter distance trips between Brighton, Lewes, Eastbourne, Bexhill and Hastings, as well as connecting these settlements to the West Coastway line (Brighton to Portsmouth/Southampton) and Kent (via the Marshlink line). This function means the two-track railway can serve neither purpose effectively as faster, regional services are held up by stopping, local services, or slowed down by having to call at additional stops.
Passenger numbers on the Brighton mainline have recovered from considerable reductions brought about by reduced transport demand during the COVID-19 pandemic. In 2022 the average numbers of passengers standing on services in the AM and PM peaks are only 1.8% less than the level that was seen in 2019.
The alternative radial rail links towards London, the Uckfield line (which terminates short of the south coast) and the Hastings - Tonbridge line, have relatively slow line speeds with several local stops albeit these stations provide vital connectivity to jobs and services particularly for smaller rural settlements and their hinterlands.
The current condition and discontinuous nature of the strategic and major road network around East Sussex falls short of the standard needed to fulfil this role on carrying longer distance and strategic traffic. The A21, A22 and A27 all pass through several villages and cause significant severance, noise, and air quality issues for local residents, and visitors travelling to/from the south coast.
The A259 between Brighton and Eastbourne serves as an alternative in the event of disruption on the A27 corridor. However, disruption means traffic is diverted onto this coastal road which is ill-equipped for the high volume of traffic and affects its function of carrying both intra- and inter-urban trips for the communities of Telscombe Cliffs, Peacehaven, Newhaven, Seaford, East Dean, Friston and Eastbourne along the A259 which also traverses through the protected landscape of the South Downs National Park.
There are multiple issues with rail level crossings on the strategic road network in East Sussex, particularly along the A259 between Rye and Brenzett where the road and Marshlink railway cross and conflict at the Star and Guldeford crossings. The A259 also has several steep inclines, tight bends, including the tight Ferry Hill hairpin bend at Winchelsea, which poses significant safety risks.
Maintaining, enhancing or introducing cross-border bus connectivity to neighbouring authorities and their communities, for example links to Brighton, Gatwick, and Tunbridge Wells.
Work with coach operators to reintroduce coach services to the county, as part of nationwide coach networks, connecting the county to large parts of the country by this mode.
Component policy measures
In summary policy measures will focus on:
- Supporting improvements on regional and national corridors to improve connectivity to the rest of the UK and abroad for freight and passengers.
- Explore options to expand the strategic transport network to link to new settlements, corridors, and growth areas.
- Supporting measures to deliver a more reliable, integrated, passenger-friendly rail network.
- Supporting measures to deliver a safer highways network that serves the needs of active travel, mass transit, freight, and new mobility as well as motorists.
Policy D2: Freight and international gateways
Context
Transport for the South East published its Freight, Logistics and Gateway strategy in May 2022 which identifies a series of strategic actions, interventions, and measures, designed to deliver the following objectives:
- Improve operational efficiency and capacity of the freight and logistics sector.
- Grow the size of, and employment within, the sector.
- Improve connectivity to/from the south east’s international gateways.
- Reduce safety risk to other road users produced by freight transport, by reducing the likelihood of conflict between strategic freight movements and local, active travel movements.
- Integrate logistics into place-making process through integration with planning policy and cultivating and harnessing better data from the sector.
- Reducing environmental impact of sector by achieving net zero carbon emissions by 2050 at the latest, as well as reducing air pollution associated with freight transport.
- Reducing wider environmental impact of sector including impact on communities, noise levels, and informal lorry parking.
The strategy will capture these principles and safeguard the region’s prosperity through holistic freight and logistics planning, incorporating innovative rail and last mile solutions to ensure freight movements to and from East Sussex are optimised and decarbonised. Enabling the economy of East Sussex to thrive and be a growing contributor to the wider UK economy.
Issues/opportunities
Cross-boundary movements are central to the movement of freight in East Sussex. Located either at the boundaries of the county or just outside are London Gatwick Airport (located to the north west of East Sussex) and the Port of Newhaven (located in the south of the county). These are international gateways which serve both international passenger and freight markets and there are opportunities to improve public transport connectivity, beyond that which is currently provided via the Brighton Main line and Seaford branch line (for rail) and the strategic road network (for vehicular access). Improvements would enable a greater proportion of residents to sustainably access these gateways.
The potential expansion and growth (i.e. Northern Runway plans) of London Gatwick Airport in particular provides opportunities for economic and employment growth for East Sussex and the region, albeit this expansion is balanced against the impacts that such growth will have on the environment and local communities (e.g. noise, air quality) in the county as well.
The south east of England hosts several major international freight gateways of national significance, with East Sussex being in proximity to Dover and Folkestone (Channel Tunnel) to the east and therefore being within reach of the continent and Southampton to the west. It is projected that freight and passenger movements across the channel to Europe will continue to grow. There are continued economic opportunities for East Sussex to thrive into the future.
The A259 east of Hastings, which connects East Sussex with Kent, is not suitable for carrying high volumes of road freight on HGVs due to the poor alignment including narrow sections of road, sharp bends and steep hills, for example Ferry Hill at Winchelsea. As strategic freight movements conflict with local traffic, the likelihood and severity of collisions rises. Road safety data provided by the Department for Transport suggests that when compared to the national average, East Sussex has a higher percentage of fatal (East Sussex 2% and England 1%) and serious collisions (East Sussex 24% and England 18%). Furthermore, the presence of HGV movements on local roads discourages active travel usage as users have to navigate narrow road space with oversized vehicles.
Road freight links between East Sussex and the rest of the country is also poor, disrupted by congestion on many strategic road corridors, most notably the need to bypass London via the M25 which slows down the movement of heavy goods vehicles carrying freight to and from the rest of the country.
There is also a lack of resilience for freight routes, particularly a lack of alternative/diversionary road and rail routes for several critical freight links.
There is limited freight services and parking in the county. Whilst there is some lorry parking at the Cophall services near Polegate for heavy goods vehicles there are no driver welfare facilities and often heavy goods vehicles drivers find themselves parking in laybys alongside the strategic and major road network or on-road in Industrial Estates overnight.
Component policy measures
In summary policy measures will focus on:
- Promoting rail freight, including the transfer of road freight onto rail.
- Promoting sustainable urban freight distribution for first mile/last mile freight journeys to and from key town centres and industrial estates.
- Improving road freight facilities, with focus on reducing conflicts between strategic freight movements and local, active travel movements.
- Explore opportunities to improve lorry parking and driver facilities.
- Supporting improvements to public transport services to the Port of Newhaven and Gatwick Airport.
A Freight Strategy for East Sussex will be developed as part of this Local Transport Plan (LTP). It will expand on the component policy measures mentioned above beyond the level of detail currently included in the Investment Plan. The county’s Freight Strategy will be subject to separate public and stakeholder consultation.
Policy D3: The needs of businesses and the visitor economy
Context
The provision of a transport network that supports the needs of businesses is a critical element of the plan. Specifically to support transport connectivity to improve links to existing markets and unlock new markets and ensure journey reliability for goods and people to help businesses to be more productive. Ensuring that economic gains are captured locally.
A new East Sussex Economic Prosperity Strategy was adopted in Autumn 2024. It will provide a framework for partners to work together in the medium and short term through a shared vision for East Sussex. It will promote and enable shared understanding of East Sussex’s strengths, challenges and opportunities, and will provide the strategic backing for competitive funding bids to unlock increased funding from central government.
The Sussex Visitor Economy Initiative (SVEI) was established in September 2020 in partnership between East Sussex County Council, West Sussex County Council and Brighton and Hove City Council, initially in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. The strategic partnership is working with public and private sector partners to harness the opportunities that cross-county collaboration brings. It aims to support sector recovery, resilience, and growth, and to raise the profile of Sussex as a national and international visitor destination.
With a range of nationally and internationally significant tourism destinations such as Cuckmere Haven and the Seven Sisters, cultural destinations such as Glyndebourne and the seaside towns, and a hinterland that includes the High Weald National Landscape and the South Downs National Park, tourism and cultural industries are an important consideration in planning the future transport provision in East Sussex.
The East Sussex, Brighton and Hove and West Sussex Local Visitor Economy Partnership (LVEP) secured its Visit England accreditation in 2024 and joins a network of LVEPs which create a new and more efficient national strategic infrastructure for visitor economy management. The strategic partnership is working with public and private sector partners to harness the opportunities that cross-county collaboration brings. It aims to support regenerative sector recovery, resilience and growth, and to raise the profile of Sussex as a national and international visitor destination. The LVEP’s vision and priorities are captured in its Strategy for Growth and includes supporting regenerative practices, improving accessibility, improving data capture and a growth target of £2.5bn.
To further support the above, East Sussex County Council and West Sussex County Council are launching Experience Sussex to maximise the impact of the Sussex brand, in particular to high spending overseas visitors. Culture East Sussex is developing a refreshed East Sussex Cultural Strategy which will reinforce the value of the visitor economy in supporting cultural visitor destinations viability and supporting the quality of life and health outcomes of residents. Data capture to inform investment and the marketing of key unique selling points such as Wine Tourism and Sussex Bay aims to achieve growth target. These will not be achievable without the fit for purpose transport infrastructure to ensure an environmentally responsible, accessible approach to growth.
International gateways in and around East Sussex are key to both the needs of business and the visitor economy. These include London Gatwick and other London airports and ports such as Newhaven, Dover and Portsmouth.
Issues/opportunities
Often those who rely on public transport cannot easily access the county’s cultural, leisure and tourism offer.
Rail travel for leisure purposes has recovered from pandemic travel restrictions more quickly than commuter or business demand. Enhancements to rail service provision can help to capitalise on this recovery allowing more people to access visitor destinations within East Sussex in a sustainable way.
Businesses value reliability and resilience from a transport network. Bus service improvements which increase frequency and operating hours of services and on the most congested routes, introduction of bus segregation, can help to deliver a public transport network which the workforce and businesses can rely on, stimulating choices regarding business location.
Work to maximise the potential of international gateways will be informed and complemented by future plans, for example the Newhaven Port Masterplan Refresh published in September 2024.
Component policy measures
In summary policy measures will focus on:
- Investing in rail and highway networks to allow businesses to trade and workers to travel easily across the country and abroad.
- Improving local connectivity to bring firms and workers in towns closer together, especially in rural areas, to promote jobs, growth and increased prosperity for both local businesses and local people.
- Improving connectivity to international gateways, to large centres in the county and wider region, as well as local communities.
- Delivering an integrated transport network navigable by visitors.
- Delivering sustainable transport connectivity to tourist destinations.
- Supporting access to education and training opportunities.
Policy D4: Supporting sustainable development and development control
Context
The population of East Sussex is forecast to grow by 70,000 by 2035. A significant level of residential development as well as development of commercial sites for employment and other civic amenities and facilities is required to accommodate this growth and to meet housing needs from the current level of population.
Future development in the county will be guided by local planning authorities’ Local Plans and their vision-led approach, where the County Council will ensure that the key principles of LTP4 are embedded within the respective Local Plans (and any subsequent reviews). Development is likely to come forward through a combination of town centre densification, urban extensions, suburban developments, and sensitive rural development. It will also be informed by Health Impact Assessments and using the Healthy Streets framework.
The presence of the South Downs National Park in the south of the county and the High Weald National Landscape to the north, as well as the sea provides quality of life for people living and working in the County, but also results in constraints to the location of development and delivery of infrastructure to support these landscapes.
The County faces several transport based challenges around car ownership, dependency, and congestion on key corridors. As such, a key aim is to reduce the distance’s that people need to travel and to encourage higher levels of walking, wheeling, cycling and public transport journeys.
With sustainable development underpinning the National Planning Policy Framework, Active Travel England’s requirement for development sizes (over 150 residential units or sites having area of five hectares or more) to assess the merits of walking, wheeling and cycling as part of development proposals and this plan having a greater emphasis on the opportunities to increase active and sustainable travel, consideration of sustainable development as part of development proposals is fundamental in influencing the development of healthy places.
Local planning authorities have responsibility, through policies set out in their Local Plans and other development plan documents, to set the requirements that developers must adhere to in contributing to accommodating travel demand and the mitigation of impacts of developments on the transport network. The Local Plan framework, along with this Local Transport Plan, will provide the context for enhancements to transport infrastructure and the identification and collection of development contributions.
Issues/opportunities
- There is a need to better connect existing and future housing to jobs, effectively bringing more of the population ‘closer’ to employment opportunities. Spreading the benefits of future economic growth more evenly, and benefit businesses who will have a wider range of potential employees to select from.
- Developments to the transport network can help to ‘unlock’ sites for future housing by providing new and improved connectivity to existing urban areas.
- Future population increases could load more journeys onto the network, potentially worsening congestion, but if a co-ordinated land use/transport planning approach is pursued which focusses development within established urban areas then this approach can help to reduce these increases in transport demand (alongside other measures to improve travel choices and encourage walking, wheeling, cycling and public transport). The network is particularly sensitive to increased demand as vehicles are now often larger than originally intended in older road designs, such as country lanes.
Component policy measures
To contribute to the achievement of sustainable development the County Council will work in partnership with local planning authorities to:
- Actively manage patterns of growth to promote sustainable transport use.
- Ensure that strategies and investments for supporting sustainable transport are aligned.
- Transport issues are considered from the earliest stages of plan making and development proposals.
- Encourage early and ongoing engagement with developers on transport impacts, transport infrastructure to be delivered and/or funded to support development.
- Ensure developments maximise opportunities to deliver new and/or enhance existing pedestrian and cycle links.
- Secure development contributions for strategic and local infrastructure.
- Deliver and/or secure, through development, strategic transport and complementary connectivity infrastructure.
- Deliver and/or secure, through development, public transport service and infrastructure provision.
Policy D5: Parking
Context
Every journey made using a car or by cycle starts and ends with a parking space, either in a designated public or private space, ‘bay’, ‘rack’ or an informal location.
Parking is an important part of the county’s transport network for both vehicles and bicycles. Being able to travel easily to key locations is a fundamental part of society and quality of life and, for many of journeys, requires parking. However, as a demand management tool, availability and pricing of on- and off-street parking for vehicles has the ability to incentivise alternative journey options.
Cycle parking is of equal importance and the provision of secure, quality, and safe parking at key destinations supports seamless and integrated journeys.
National policy for vehicle parking is contained within the National Planning Policy Framework, specifically with regards to the setting of parking standards. It states, “If setting local parking standards for residential and non-residential development, policies should take into account:
- The accessibility of the development.
- The type, mix, and use of the development.
- The availability of and opportunities for public transport.
- Local car ownership levels.
- The need to ensure an adequate provision of spaces for charging plug-in and other ultra-low emission vehicles.”
Issues/opportunities
Parking plays a vital role in demand management. There are opportunities to manage demand through parking design, controlled provision and the cost of these, and enforcement supporting reduction in congestion, influencing travel behaviour towards more sustainable travel models, reductions in carbon emissions and improvements in air quality.
Repurposing parking space can enhance the public realm and creation of public spaces providing space for cycle parking, parklets, active travel infrastructure, or greening balanced with the needs of providing inclusive access. Better supporting achievement of wider socio-economic outcomes.
The number of organisations that influence parking policy, provision and enforcement is complex:
- Central government - sets the National Planning Policy Framework.
- County Council/local highway authority - as the local highway authority, publishes Parking Guidance for new development along with the provision of a parking calculator to establish the level of parking provision for new residential development. Also provides on-street parking controls and charging; often comments on parking as a statutory consultee to development applications; and can oversee Park and Ride provision.
- Local planning authorities - sets parking standards (i.e. permitted volumes of parking) in their Local Plans and ultimately decides whether to consent to the amount of parking permissible as part of development sites; operates public off-street parking (which they might outsource to a third party operator) and enforce off-street parking controls.
- Developers - assess the likely need and ultimately build parking provision as part of their development sites.
- External partners - provide off-street parking which support the overall parking stock. Partners include shopping centre operators and Network Rail.
- Police - responsible for some on-street parking enforcement where civil parking enforcement not in place (currently only Wealden do not have civil parking enforcement).
The level of parking provision provided as part of development will be influenced by:
- The accessibility of the development.
- The type, mix, and use of the development.
- The availability of and opportunities for public transport.
- Local car ownership levels.
- The need to ensure an adequate provision of spaces for charging plug-in and other ultra-low emission vehicles.
Component policy measures
In summary parking policy measures will focus on:
- Promoting parking design that is safe, secure and considers the parking needs of all road users.
- Repurposing existing parking spaces that encourage more sustainable travel behaviours and promote a better quality of life in communities.
- Working with key partners to ensure the provision of cycle parking as part of wider schemes and at key destinations.
- Reducing parking provision to manage demand and encourage more walking, wheeling, cycling and public transport journeys.
- Investigating parking technology and implications of disruptive technology to improve management and use of on and off-street parking stock.
- Working with local planning authorities to promote the benefits of controlled parking enforcement in parts of the county in which it is not currently in place.
- Exploring opportunities to enhance coach and heavy goods vehicles parking in the county.
Policy D6: Highways maintenance and asset management
Context
Maintaining and managing the assets that form transport networks – roads, public transport infrastructure, cycle routes, footpaths (streets), street lighting, road signs and other infrastructure is an essential part of keeping residents and visitors moving and is important to prosperity and growth. A well-maintained and managed network helps ensure that journeys around the area are safe, reliable, and efficient, at all times and in all weather conditions.
The East Sussex Highway Asset Management Strategy and supporting policy aims to deliver a more efficient and effective approach to management of highway infrastructure assets through longer-term planning and ensuring that levels of service are defined and achievable. Through taking a life-cycle approach to assets and their management, and engaging with local stakeholders, the County Council aim to make best use of resources and target improvements to highway infrastructure assets to support social wellbeing of local communities and drive sustainable economic growth. Alongside supporting the objectives of LTP4 including safety, accessibility and resilience.
Issues/opportunities
Ensure asset management programmes are future proofed and adapt to changes in mobility.
During the maintenance and repairs of assets, the replacement of materials that are more difficult to source will be dependent on availability of funding and prioritisation.
Ensuring that whole life scheme maintenance costs are included from the outset of scheme planning stages, to ensure that these are affordable, will be critical.
Climate change and an increased frequency of extreme weather events mean that highways assets are subject to increased adverse conditions which can result in increased maintenance costs.
Use of carbon management systems in scheme identification, design and delivery minimise the embedded and operating emissions of the infrastructure.
There is growing recognition of the importance of good design and integrated delivery in maximising the life and capacity of existing assets while considering social and environmental impacts, such as resilience to climate change.
Consideration of the waste hierarchy during construction (for example, using sustainably sourced materials with recycled content or reusing demolition material in new schemes) offers wide reaching benefits in terms of resource efficiency, sustainability, and cost savings.
Component policy measures
In summary policy measures will focus on the following which are in alignment with East Sussex County Council’s Highway Asset Management Strategy:
- Provision of a transport network which is as safe as possible for all users.
- Prioritisation towards the maintenance of the existing highway assets.
- Provision of enhancements to highway assets depending on the availability of funding.
- Minimising the whole life costs of the highway.
- The management and co-ordination of roadworks which minimise delays for all users, particularly public transport.
- Addressing the challenges of climate change and enhancing communities and environment through highway asset management and maintenance.
- Embedding carbon management systems in the identification, design, and delivery of highways.
- Monitoring and evaluating the outcomes of highways maintenance to ensure value for money is being achieved.