Cabinet Minister Listens to Little Common Concerns
Local residents in Little Common, Bexhill, have had their concerns raised to a senior Government Minister in an attempt to resolve traffic congestion.
The residents are concerned that traffic movements have increased since the opening of the Bexhill to Hastings Link Road. Residents are anticipating further increases in traffic movements from new housing in the area and the completion of the new North East Access Road.
On the day that the Government delivered its White Paper on Housing reform, local MP, Huw Merriman, met with the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, Sajid Javid, to lobby for a solution for Little Common residents. This follows a commitment from Mr Merriman to 200 residents who attended a public meeting on the matter in Little Common at the end of last year.
In Parliament, Mr Javid and Mr Merriman discussed the possibility of local authorities, Highways England and the Local Enterprise Partnership bidding for investment from a new £2.3bl Housing Investment Fund which the Government has recently launched. The fund will distribute money for new projects, such as roads, which would unlock new space for housing development.
Mr Merriman has now written to local stakeholders to ask them to assess if a bid would be attractive in the event that there was local appetite to use new housing development as a means to complete a by-pass of Bexhill and Little Common.
Said Mr Merriman, “We undoubtedly have a real need to help local people get on to, or up, the housing ladder as well as the challenge of delivering infrastructure to ease congestion and allow for more regeneration. If we could combine these projects via Government funding then it could be an exciting opportunity for the area. It may be that the required housing numbers, or the location, would not make a bid worthwhile but it must at least be worthy of consideration. The Secretary of State has offered to meet with local partners to explain how this could work and I am ready to help make this happen.”
Local discussion of a by-pass for Bexhill has been heightened by the recent reconfirmation by Government that funds will be provided to deliver the North East Bexhill Access Road. This new road will join the Link Road to the Ninfield Road. Residents in Little Common are concerned that this will increase traffic movements in to, and heading north from, Little Common. Said Mr Merriman, “I am delighted that the Government has confirmed that the North East Bexhill Access Road is on its list of approved projects. We should view this as the second stage of a by-pass for Bexhill, with the ambition of a final stage being the link over to the A259.”