Your Views
Hastings-Bexhill cycle path. View from Galley Hill. 18/10/11
AS A cyclist, I read with interest your article in last week’s edition about the Greenway (“Campaigners welcome proposed cycle routes”), from which we learn that planning on an extension of the current seafront cycle route through to Fairlight is to commence in March next year.
This is all very laudable and welcome, but before HUB and East Sussex County Council get carried away, and start chucking money at new routes they may wish to ensure that the existing one between the end of St Leonards seafront and Galley Hill opened with much fanfare in January this year at a cost of £360,000, is useable.
Since it’s opening the route appears to have deteriorated substantially.
All along its length much of the route is peppered with puddles due to subsidence and water being unable to drain away – at one point this has resulted in a small lake. Similarly large parts of the route are now covered with shingle, and it is unclear why the tarmaced bit just before Ravenside has a corrugated surface. Did no one think to factor in the cost of maintenance at the planning stage?
I daresay it is suitable for mountain bikes with chunky tyres, but for a standard road bike with narrow guage tyres, a route that would be entirely viable were its plastic grid structure not submerged under water and shingle, is a complete non starter. Consequently for me and I suspect many other cyclists the main road between St Leonards and Ravenside remains a quicker, safer, and more comfortable alternative.
Hopefully more thought will be put into the planning of any extension to Fairlight.
J E OATES
Charles Road,
St Leonards
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Weather for Bexhill-on-Sea
Friday 24 May 2013
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Light showers
Temperature: 5 C to 11 C
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