Getting Involved with the Local Transport Plan
HASTINGS SUSTAINABLE TRANSPORT FORUM
East Sussex County Council, our Transport Authority, is planning for the future with its Local Transport Plan 4 (LTP4), Town Deal money is going to be invested in the town centre and ESCC are consulting us for our opinions on both.
At the same time Levelling Up money may soon be invested in making better use of the station forecourt, Queensbury House, Priory Street and Priory Quarter, including the multi-storey car park, and Stagecoach are looking to invest in lovely electric buses for towns which give them less congested routes to run on.
It would be nice if Hastings residents’ and businesses were to take advantage of this confluence and respond to both consultations with an eye to making Hastings lovely and healthy to live in and a 21st century tourist destination – rich in things to see and do but also clean, bright and easy to get to and through…mostly without a car. Hastings Sustainable Transport Forum is ambitious for improvements and hope you are too.
See the Hastings Town Centre and Green Connections design-map:
If Hastings Town Centre is to be made like a new Town Park, connected to the sea, then its connections to the rest of town have to be part of the project.
Arup have made it look lovely in the pictures, but it’ll be much less lovely once built if buses and very large delivery lorries are still routed to drive through the middle of it.
Better would be to route the buses and lorries round the outside with unloading bays and bus stops within easy reach. For people with luggage or just not up for the walk – a light electric shuttle could run ceaselessly between seafront and station.
If buses were to drive out of the station to Devonshire Road, South Terrace and Queens Road, then they’d be faster and more enticing to use if car through-traffic no longer used the centre of town but only came as far as Priory Meadow Shopping Centre car park and Morrissons which would leave Queens Road traffic-free except for buses – which would be fantastic for footfall and spend in the shops.
If buses direct from the station only go east and buses going west use the Cambridge Gardens-Priory Street loop instead, then the walk from the station could be on a path through a new station garden, over a single-width road, to park-like Havelock Road, Town Centre and the sea.
See 6 Hastings Bus Loops design-map:
Town bus routes could also be reviewed – we suggest 6 two-way loop services with all Borough residences and destinations within a ten-minute walk. Stagecoach, of course, would only be able to afford to run that pattern of service if the LTP4 provides for quiet roads, bus-only lanes and bus-priority traffic lights to give buses an advantage – and thus enough passengers to make them pay.
See Hastings Smart Transport Network design-map:
For cars to have good through routes plus ‘access’ it would help to have the buses use other roads where possible, to have safe cycle routes so cycling can replace some car journeys and better walking pavements and crossings, so walking becomes a pleasure rather than a chore.
Tell ESCC what you’d like – deadline Feb 25th for the LTP4 and March 1st for the Town Centre. Don’t hold back!
For the whole Hastings Sustainable Transport LTP4 consultation advice and link:
https://www.transitiontownhastings.org.uk/category/minutes/
For the 10 steps
https://www.facebook.com/hastingsurbanbikes
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