2 weeks Ago
County council leaders are set to decide whether to commit additional funding to plans to replace Exceat Bridge. Today, April 22, East Sussex County Council’s cabinet is due to decide whether to “re-direct” more than £11 million towards plans to replace the single-lane bridge — which forms part of the A259 between Seaford and Eastbourne — with a new two-lane, two-way alternative route. The meeting comes a little more than a month after the project was set to be discontinued due to its rising costs.
A total of £4.6 million has already been spent on the project. This includes £2.
5 million spent on preliminary design and planning, and £1.8 million on detailed design. At a previous meeting in March, cabinet members had been due to decide whether to move ahead with alternative plans to construct a like-for-like replacement of the existing structure.
These cheaper plans, unlike the initial proposals, would have required the road to be closed for around 22 weeks. These closures could result in delays of up to an hour for some rush hour motorists, council officers had said. But, as the March meeting began, officers changed their recommendation, saying they wished to explore whether money tied to the council’s Bus Service Improvement Plan (BSIP) could be used to deliver the original proposals instead.
In a new report to cabinet, officers say this change of course had been prompted by a letter from Brighton and Hove Bus and Coach Company Limited (B&H Buses). According to officers, the bus company said it would have promoted the Exceat bridge project as a higher priority than other schemes within the BSIP, had it not already been a project on the council’s books. Following the bus company’s intervention, the Department for Transport (DfT) gave the council permission to reallocate £11.
128m of BSIP grant funding towards the Exceat Bridge project. Officers say the reallocation will result in some disruption to other projects within the BSIP. These include planned improvements to The Drove and Denton roundabout in Newhaven and a bus priority scheme at Telscombe Cliffs in Peacehaven.
The council says it still hopes to move ahead with these schemes should further funding be made available in the future. It specifically intends to use 2025/26 BSIP funding to continue with the Newhaven improvements, but officers have said the scheme “may need to be descoped to ensure it can be delivered within the available funding.” The future is more uncertain for the Telscombe Cliffs scheme as no additional funding has currently been identified.
The council says this scheme, as well as plans to improve Bus Stop Infrastructure and provide Real Time Information, would be prioritised for delivery using future BSIP funding, if and when it is announced by the DfT. While the reallocation of BSIP money is expected to close the funding gap, the Exceat Bridge project still faces some further hurdles. As part of the project, the council is in the process of securing land through a Compulsory Purchase Order (CPO) and similar statutory powers.
In light of objections, the DfT has arranged a public inquiry. This inquiry is set to commence on May 13 and is expected to run for several days, following which a decision on the orders will be reached. The council says it will continue to negotiate with the statutory objectors in hopes of removing the need for a CPO.
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