Norman Baker and the A27

[dougdeep]

it would also drastically reduce the fatalities caused by lorry drivers blindly pulling out because they are so used to driving on cruise control that they find the concept of braking alien to their pea brains.

I would say most of the crashes involving lorries are caused by the car drivers, they don't seem to take into consideration that it might take a lorry more time to stop, and more room to manoeuvre. HGV drivers over 40 have to have a full medical every 5 years, it's a shame car drivers don't.

 

[Yorkie]

At the expense of all the villages, hamlets and countryside that would have to be bulldozed to make way for it, presumably.

If you want that sort of infrastructure go and live in the West Midlands. I'll put up with some transport inconvenience if it means preserving what rural character we've got.

The vast majority of land either side of the A27 is fields. There aren't many villages or hamlets right alongside it.

I lived in West Yorkshire for 33 years and the road infrastructure is much better. Sussex has lagged behind the times because of NIMBYs.

 

[Jameson]

In view of the dreadful death toll (including some with almost an entire family and one with several local young people) I think a new dual carriagway solution makes the best sense. These days these can be done sensitively and without ruining the landscape (eg Polegate and Lamberhurst are safe, fast, there's no dead animals on the roadside and it opens up fantastic new views). Baker says the improvements should not happen at the expense of the environment alongside the road; basically he would prefer the death toll to continue rather than building roads through farmland (that's an industry to me; therefore it's industrial land). Sounds a bit like the arguement for not building Falmer to me. And it's the same drivers that drive the road at either end where there are no such accidents so I cant really see how you can blame the drivers.

What will happen when they finish the new flyover at Beddingham? They seem to get that through OK so why not join up this with the Polegate bypass and have done with it.

 

[Monkey Man]

The vast majority of land either side of the A27 is fields. There aren't many villages or hamlets right alongside it.

I lived in West Yorkshire for 33 years and the road infrastructure is much better. Sussex has lagged behind the times because of NIMBYs.

You suggest a dual carriageway steaming right across Sussex. Take a look at any map and you'll see how many inconvenient hills, woods, villages and towns are in the way of your masterplan.

Sussex lagging behind Yorkshire? That's absolutely fine with me.

 

[Yorkie]

NIMBY

 

[andybaha]

In view of the dreadful death toll (including some with almost an entire family and one with several local young people) I think a new dual carriagway solution makes the best sense. These days these can be done sensitively and without ruining the landscape (eg Polegate and Lamberhurst are safe, fast, there's no dead animals on the roadside and it opens up fantastic new views). Baker says the improvements should not happen at the expense of the environment alongside the road; basically he would prefer the death toll to continue rather than building roads through farmland (that's an industry to me; therefore it's industrial land). Sounds a bit like the arguement for not building Falmer to me. And it's the same drivers that drive the road at either end where there are no such accidents so I cant really see how you can blame the drivers.

What will happen when they finish the new flyover at Beddingham? They seem to get that through OK so why not join up this with the Polegate bypass and have done with it.

Absolutely spot on.

Everyday as I drive about I see examples of bad driving, as I'm sure you all do. It's not something that's exclusive to the A27. However on the stretch of road between Middle Farm and the Barley Mow there have been at least seven people killed in the last three years or so. That's not coincidence, it's because it's a damned awful piece of road to be part of the main coastal trunk road across Sussex.

On the subject of the Beddingham flyover, Norman Baker was one of those that campaigned successfully for the new bridge to be only single carriageway travelling east. Presumably this deters any future plans to build a dual carriageway as the bridge is not wide enough to take one.

 

[BensGrandad]

The plan many years ago was to build the M27 from Folkestone to Honiton hence the road that goes nowhere at Crossbush (nr Arundel) that was going to go to abridge over the Arun to by pass Arundel.

The government also compulsury purchased all the houses between Offington Corner and Swandean then due to lack of money scrapped the whole idea and then sold the houses off cheap.

The idea of the road was brilliant and would have eased congestion in many places along the existing A27 and made for quick travel from Kent channel ports to the West Country.

 

[andybaha]

The plan many years ago was to build the M27 from Folkestone to Honiton hence the road that goes nowhere at Crossbush (nr Arundel) that was going to go to abridge over the Arun to by pass Arundel.

The government also compulsury purchased all the houses between Offington Corner and Swandean then due to lack of money scrapped the whole idea and then sold the houses off cheap.

The idea of the road was brilliant and would have eased congestion in many places along the existing A27 and made for quick travel from Kent channel ports to the West Country.

If we think Eastbourne to Brighton is poor, try Eastbourne to Folkestone.

 

[BensGrandad]

The quickest way from Brighton to Dover is via M23 , M25 and M2. longer in miles but much quicker in time.

When I had my pub in Guildford I helped a customer out who hada courier company and picked up a parcel in Margate to go to Lyndhurst in the New Forest.

The quickest route took me from Guildford to Margate back to the M25 by passing Guildford and then down the M3.

Just think what the M27 would have saved me had it been built.

 

[Lord Bracknell]

If we think Eastbourne to Brighton is poor, try Eastbourne to Folkestone.

There's simply not enough traffic making this journey to justify a motorway.

It's possible to be waiting at a level crossing on the road across Romney Marsh and find that not a single vehicle apart from yourself joins the queue.

 

[BensGrandad]

The government at the time obviously thought there was because the plans were only shelved after all the public enquiries etc and the fact that the cost had trebled.

This was on the cards before Maggie took over and was only shelved in the last 10 - 15 years by the last Tory government.

The reason for the no cars on Romney Marsh is because all the cars and heavy traffic go around the motorways because the roads are not good or fast enough.

 

[John Byrnes Mullet]

Too Many NIMBY's, you sound like the anti-Falmer Brigade. Look to a better future for Sussex and England, are roads are 20 years behind the rest of Europe.

 

[Jameson]

There's simply not enough traffic making this journey to justify a motorway.

It's possible to be waiting at a level crossing on the road across Romney Marsh and find that not a single vehicle apart from yourself joins the queue.

Not my experience and I travel that way to Ashford daily. The journey can take up to 1.5 hours for less than 40 miles from where I live. There are endless rat runs through lots of the supposedly precious villages (Appledore, Ham Street, Northiam, Westfield, Battle etc....) which explain why. I can assure you I have never NOT been held up by all the articulated lorries that are directed across Romney Marshes to the Channel Tunnel.

 

[Brovion]

There's simply not enough traffic making this journey to justify a motorway. ...

There IS enough traffic - but as BensGrandad has said it goes via the M25. Anybody on Romney Marsh driving from Sussex to the channel ports is lost - or like Attila thinks that the dirtect route must be the best one. Yes, if you stopped the vehicles and asked them about their journey very few would say they were going from Sussex to Dover/Folkstone, But I bet very few are driving to Birmingham or Cardiff either.

However it isn't going to change so all you Luddites and Nimbys can sleep easy in your rural beds.

 

[Hunting 784561]

On the subject of the Beddingham flyover, Norman Baker was one of those that campaigned successfully for the new bridge to be only single carriageway travelling east. Presumably this deters any future plans to build a dual carriageway as the bridge is not wide enough to take one.

The fact that Baker actively campaigned for a single carriageway flyover when it COULD have been dualled really makes me very angry.

Just like the idiot who made the Uckfield bypass single carriageway in the 70s/80s, when that COULD have been dual carriageway, they have condemned East Sussex to an inferior and second rate transport infratructure.

 

[Lord Bracknell]

Not my experience and I travel that way to Ashford daily. The journey can take up to 1.5 hours for less than 40 miles from where I live. There are endless rat runs through lots of the supposedly precious villages (Appledore, Ham Street, Northiam, Westfield, Battle etc....) which explain why. I can assure you I have never NOT been held up by all the articulated lorries that are directed across Romney Marshes to the Channel Tunnel.

If you're going via Ham Street, you're going a different way. I was talking about the A259 road from Rye to Folkestone, via New Romney. But you're right about lorries. They don't use the A259. Nor should they.