Link road hangs in the balance

Latest opinion polls suggest David Cameron's Conservative frontrunners will not secure enough votes to win outright. This would effectively leave Lib Dem leader Nick Clegg as a king-maker free to chose which of the main two parties to throw his support behind. His party would demand a say on a host of big issues, particularly in areas impacting on the environment. And local Lib Dem candidate for Bexhill and Battle Mary Varrall put a cat amongst the pigeons this week by confirming her party would NOT agree to give the anticipated go-ahead to the controversial link road. Mary said: "The link road will not improve the bigger picture for Bexhill and Rother. We will invest in infrastructure rather than new bypasses. "I use the road, and have sympathy for those who commute along it, but I have always had doubts that what's on the table will bring any solution to this difficult problem. "It's a huge cost for not much saving." She emphasised the need for more affordable housing in Rother's villages, but said the link road would not provide the answers, saying: "we have not properly looked at the alternatives". Hastings Labour MP Michael Foster revealed earlier this month that a final decision on the road was now not expected until after the election, leading to rumours the Government was delaying bad news. However, like Bexhill's Conservative MP Greg Barker, Michael Foster has been a long supporter of the scheme and claims the delay was logistical, not political. Greg Barker dismissed the Lib Dem stance as "old fashioned and backward" this week, saying they had given Bexhill a "stark choice" for the coming election. He added: "The bottom line is building a new direct road to link the A259 and the A21 will firstly reduce pollution for all the residents along the road into Bexhill, but even more importantly will mean that the continuing development of buildings across the High Weald will be able to be contained within a dedicated area, rather than the haphazard approach used at the moment." Planning permission has already been granted for the three-mile stretch but a public inquiry has been held into the legality of compulsory purchase orders used to buy up the land. The scheme was dealt a further blow this week when a transport planning expert cast into doubt the value for money of the scheme. Writing in the Local Transport Today magazine, Alan Wenban-Smith said the average time saved by using the link road instead of current links, would be less than five minutes a journey. This, he argued, would be unlikely to drastically aid regeneration. Derrick Coffee, spokesman for anti-road lobbyists Hastings Alliance, said: "Spending public funds of almost 100m to achieve very small, unnoticeable time savings is unjustifiable. It represents a shocking waste of public funds at a time when economic prudence is being widely accepted as essential for at least the next few years. "Bexhill has done pretty well in getting on and regenerating itself without this irrelevant and damaging road."