Date of meeting: 5 December 2023

A period of not more than fifteen minutes shall be allowed at each ordinary meeting of the Council for the hearing of deputations from members of the public.

Notification of one Deputation has been received. The spokesperson is entitled to speak for 5 minutes.

1) Deputation: Concerning tackling congestion on the A259 which is delaying buses so that the peak commute journeys now take up to 65% longer than in 2010

I am part of the A259 action group which is endorsed by Lewes District Council and East Sussex County Council, having attracted 17,000 signatures to the Big Petition from local residents in favour of tackling congestion on the A259 East of Brighton Marina. We look for ways to address the growing delays to our vital bus services.

Despite there being less traffic, the queues on the general traffic lane have grown to such an extent that they obstruct the flow of buses, negating the initial gains from the bus lane, contributing to 2010’s 26 minute journey now taking 43 minutes,

A simple way to improve bus journey time and tackle the recent fall in bus patronage, is to allow general traffic to use this very lightly used bus lane, so reducing the congestion on the general traffic lane and hence allowing buses to move more freely.

So a 6 month trial is proposed.

To be clear:-- Only the bus lane from Longridge Avenue to Rottingdean is affected by this change. No change is proposed to the West to East bus lane from Greenways to Rottingdean, as that would adversely affect bus journey times.

- This will encourage bus use, contributing to the City Plan target of increasing bus use by 800,000 passenger trips per annum to relieve pressure on the main roads, a target currently being missed badly.

Potential Objections:-

Will relieving A259 congestion just attract more traffic?

There is evidence traffic is using residential streets to avoid the A259 congestion, so hopefully this experiment will bring that traffic back to more suitable roads. However this effect will be limited until the West-East flow is improved.

Could this improvement be achieved by improving the bus lane in other ways?

Banning Right-Turns and improving the placement of bus stops and pedestrian crossings might make significant gains, though it is hard to predict the impact that would have on junctions and on the Rottingdean Air Quality Management Area or how long and costly the studies and highways engineering would be.

Will we need to invest in monitoring equipment for this experiment?

No, the permanent traffic counters (ATC97 and ATC614) collect the data needed and the bus operator monitors journey times.

I hope you agree that we need to tackle congestion, delays, pollution and the high carbon footprint along the A259 corridor and make our bus services the travel mode of choice.

Supported by:

Nigel Smith (Lead Spokesperson)

Rob Shepherd

Lynne Moss

Paul Goddard

John Bryant