East Sussex County Council (ESCC)and other cycling policies

In February 2008 David Louis, Anne Locke and Amanda Burgess from Cycle Lewes met Robin Reed, then the Principal Transport Planner with East Sussex County Council (ESCC) and Robert Marshall, who designs Lewes transport schemes. Although the Cycling Officer, Tobias Bauer, had not been replaced, Robin instead had responsibility for integrating cycling into all aspects of transport planning and this seemed likely to mean better joined-up thinking in future. Robin has since left and his role integrating cycling has not been replaced. In theory cycling is now integrated across all aspects of transport planning through the strategy he helped develop. However we have doubts about whether this will happen effectively in practice, and still feel there is more to be done to coordinate policies affecting cycling across the Council (e.g. with tourism, schools and rights of way) and with other organisations such as the Highways Agency, health authorities and public transport providers. This would probably require additional staffing.

ESCC's evaluation system - the 'balanced scorecard'

Cycling, walking and public transport proposals are now evaluated together according to how well they fulfil the objectives of the Local Transport Plan. Generally, ‘utility' cycling schemes are preferred over ‘recreational' but ESCC does look for opportunities for external funding or ‘planning gain' from developers which might support proposals which would not otherwise qualify. The highest-rated cycling proposal is the Lewes-Ringmer route.

Consultations, consultations

Our response to a consultation on Lewes District Council's high-level draft strategy for the future, based on Cycle Lewes's experience with cycling in the area over more than a decade, develops the idea that:

While this paper looks at strategic road and rail infrastructure it does not characterise the rural road and off-road networks, which are extensive, and of great potential for recreation and tourism potential, but are generally poorly connected to the centres of population. We would add:

The northern part of Lewes District has an extensive network of quiet lanes used by cyclists and equestrians, while the southern area on and around the South Downs has some of the best off-road cycling in England. However the connections between these areas and the towns are poor, with cyclists needing to negotiate heavy traffic and difficult junctions. There is no signage from the towns (where most of the population lives) or the railway stations to to the edge of towns or to the South Downs. The cycle connections between Lewes and Newhaven/Seaford are particularly poor.

On 5 October 2009 Anne Locke attended a meeting in Brighton with consultants Mott Macdonald who are reviewing cycling provision on/around the A27 Lewes to Polegate for the Highways Agency. Bricycles, Bespoke and Sustrans were also represented along with ESCC; we made familiar points including the need for a crossing of the A27 at Wilmington, a more continuous cycle path and a clear route out of Lewes.

Over the winter 2008-2009 Cycle Lewes provided comments on three cycling consultations:

Click one of the following for a copy of our responses: ESCC Cycling Strategy, Highways Agency, cycling in Seaford.