Millions of pounds from frontline services will be diverted to a major new link road in East Sussex, because funding earmarked from developers has dried up, according to campaigners. The Government has reconfirmed provisional funding for the £88.7m Bexhill-Hastings link road, which aims to support regeneration and improve transport links in the area. But the Campaign for Better Transport claimed East Sussex CC had banked on receiving around £20m from developers – through a ‘discreet sum' – to contribute to the cost of the 3.5-mile carriageway. Richard George, the group's roads and climate campaigner, said: ‘East Sussex will have to raid tens of millions from vital services to pay for this monstrosity because it failed to attract any contributions from developers.' The council said ‘any possible' developer contributions would only be realised after completion of the road. ‘As the link road is providing infrastructure to enable the release of development land, it has to be constructed first,' a spokesperson said. ‘The county council is, therefore, financing the cost of building the new road ahead of the receipt of such contributions and has made provision for that cost in its capital programme.' But Derrick Coffee, of the Hastings Alliance campaign group, said: ‘East Sussex says it has budgeted for the shortfall, but we don't know where the money is coming from.' He added that more sustainable alternatives to the road, ‘which has doubled in cost in just four years,' had been ignored. And the Department for Transport initially said it would approve the scheme on condition that the costs would not increase, Mr George claims. The scheme will now be subject to a public inquiry into the compulsory purchase and side road orders in November.
