Cabinet
Cabinet
Subject: A259 Hove to Portslade Active Travel Scheme Consultation
Date of meeting: Thursday, 13 November 2025
Report of: Cabinet Member for Transport & City Infrastructure
Lead Officer: Name: Corporate Director- City Operations
Contact Officer: Name: Jasmin Barnicoat
Email: Jasmin.Barnicoat@brighton-hove.gov.uk
Ward(s) affected: Central Hove; South Portslade; Westbourne & Poets’ Corner; Wish;
Key Decision: Yes
Reason(s) Key: Expenditure which is, or the making of savings which are, significant having regard to the expenditure of the City Council’s budget, namely above £1,000,000 and is significant in terms of its effects on communities living or working in an area comprising two or more electoral divisions (wards).
1.1 This report provides a summary of the analysis for the A259 Hove to Portslade Active Travel Scheme public consultation and makes recommendations on how to proceed.
1.2 The proposals will improve walking and cycling infrastructure in a key part of the seafront with the installation of a separated two-way cycle lane; safer, better aligned crossings and junctions; and improvements to pavements and bus stops.
1.3 The proposals support the Council Plan goals to create an accessible, clean and sustainable city where health and wellbeing is promoted through active travel, and where it is easier for people to move around the city. The proposals are part of our plans to address the city’s transport needs and challenges, and to invest in maintaining and upgrading our highways network.
2.1 That Cabinet notes the outcome of the most recent public consultation and stakeholder engagement as set out in Appendix 1 of this report.
2.2 That Cabinet approves the amendments to the A259 Hove to Portslade Active Travel Scheme designs as outlined in the report at paragraph 5.4,
Appendix 1 and Appendix 2, following consideration of the public consultation and stakeholder engagement responses.
2.3 That Cabinet authorises that all Traffic Regulation Orders (TROs) required for the A259 Hove to Portslade Active Travel Scheme be advertised in accordance with the standard procedure. If the TRO consultation responses exceed the threshold as outlined in the Part 2F - Scheme of Delegation to Officers, the TROs will be reported back to this Cabinet next year to agree the way forward.
2.4 That Cabinet delegates to the Corporate Director for City Operations, the decision to procure and award a call-off contract, within the budget outlined in Section 6 of this report, under the Council’s existing Highways Services Framework for the construction of the A259 Hove to Portslade Active Travel Scheme.
2.5 That Cabinet requests officers to pursue external funding to extend the A259 Hove to Portslade Active Travel Scheme east towards Brighton in response to feedback received. Any designs would be subject to the usual approval and consultation processes.
3.1 In June 2024 Council Members agreed the redesign options for the A259 Fourth Avenue to Wharf Road Active Travel scheme in line with their strategic vision to deliver a high-quality seafront cycle facility. At the same time, they gave agreement for officers to progress with designs for the connected, adjacent scheme – Wharf Road to the western city boundary. Both of these schemes have been combined together as the A259 Hove to Portslade Active Travel Scheme.
3.3 The council was awarded £4.3 million of funding by Active Travel England after bids were submitted for the Active Travel Fund 3 and 4 funding programmes. The bids contained business cases and concept designs to make improvements along the road to support active travel. Additional funding would come from the Local Transport Plan (see section 6).
3.4 On 16 June 2025 until 27 July 2025, a public consultation took place on the proposed designs for both schemes as phase 1 and phase 2 of the A259 Hove to Portslade Active Travel Scheme. The designs consulted on for this consultation can be found in Appendix 3. Full details of the consultation results and proposed design amendments can be found in Appendices 1 and 2 with a summary in section 5 of this report.
3.5 A number of changes have been made to the designs in response to consultation feedback. These changes are also summarised in section 5.
4.1 Re-design the scheme. The design of this scheme is to a very high and ambitious specification where additional funding has been committed from Local Transport Plan capital funding. Any further upgrades to the design specification would require extra funding to be sourced. It would also require more time to undertake a re-design with further public consultation required.
4.2 Do nothing and withdraw the proposals. The majority of the funding for the A259 Hove to Portslade Active Travel Scheme is from Active Travel England, where they have already been asked to agree to delays in the council spending this allocation and approved a change request to move funding originally given for a different scheme to this project. If this project does not go ahead, they reserve the right to recover the funding by reducing future grant payments to the authority. Both phases of the scheme have also gained support from key stakeholders and strong public support evidenced through the recent consultation. Not proceeding with the project could expose the council to public criticism.
5.1 A public consultation on proposals took place between Monday 16 June and Sunday 27 July, 2025, further details on the methodology and full results can be found in Appendix 1.
5.2 Informal consultation with relevant internal Brighton & Hove City Council teams and external stakeholders also took place during the development of the designs.
5.3 Consultation Headlines:
· 910 responses were received to the consultation (once any duplicates had been merged).
· The highest number of respondents were residents in the city (87%) with 65% located in Hove and Portslade (identified by BN3 and BN41 postcodes).
· A majority of respondents showed support for most proposals (strongly agree/agree). For those questions where these numbers appear lower, there are higher numbers of ‘neither agree/disagree’ responses due to the specificity of question asked (disabled bays and loading bays for example).
· A majority of respondents agreed that both phase 1 and 2 would improve safety for pedestrians and cyclists. Numbers are lower for whether the proposals will improve safety for disabled people, however, there are a higher number of those responding ‘not sure’ to this question.
· A majority of Hove (BN3) respondents support the phase 1 proposals and a majority of Portslade (BN41) respondents support the phase 2 proposals.
· 585 respondents commented on phase 1 and/or phase 2 and/or the whole scheme. These comments have informed changes to the proposals as outlined below. 325 people did not leave any comments.
5.4 Table 1 summarises the key changes made in response to consultation feedback.
Table 1: Design changes in response to consultation feedback
|
Feedback |
Design response |
|
Requests to allow vehicles to turn right out of St Aubyns South. |
Re-design new crossing point near St Aubyns South to remove need for right turn vehicle ban. |
|
Requests for additional new crossing point near St Keyna Avenue to serve shops in this area. |
New pedestrian crossing added near St Keyna Avenue. |
|
Concerns about relocation of Tandridge Road bus stop to outside the Vega building, Kingsway. |
Bus stop moved to the east of Roman Road. |
|
Reduction in parking outside The Gather Inn. |
Parking retained. |
|
Requests to make the section west of Church Road, Portslade, two-way. |
This section connects to the West Sussex boundary and the long-term aspiration is for a continuous two-way cycle lane across both authorities. Officers will work with West Sussex County Council to identify if the section between Church Road and the city boundary can be made two-way sooner. |
|
Reduction in parking on seafront east of Boundary Road. |
More parking mitigation where possible near St Leonard’s Road / St Leonard’s Avenue. |
|
Requests to increase gap between cycle lane and parked cars. |
Widen buffer separator as much as possible next to parking. |
|
Concerns about sections shared between pedestrians and cyclists. |
Additional safety measures incorporated on shared use sections and continued engagement with stakeholder groups through detailed design process. |
|
Comments on shared pedestrian and cycle crossings. |
Ensure toucan crossing design suits needs of pedestrians and cyclists. |
|
Concern buses would block traffic as a result of narrowing the road. |
Review bus stop positioning for single lane areas to ensure free-flow of traffic. |
|
Requests for further planting. |
Additional green spaces / planting where possible and subject to long-term maintenance agreements. |
5.6 More generally, feedback has also been received regarding the existing seafront cycle lane east of Fourth Avenue. This scheme was installed with temporary infrastructure in 2020 using Government covid emergency active travel funding. A decision was subsequently taken at the meeting of the Environment, Transport and Sustainability Committee on the 16 November 2021 to make the Traffic Regulation Order permanent, however, the infrastructure remained temporary. The cycle lane is not fully separated from traffic and feedback has been received that the current arrangement could be clearer, simpler and safer for pedestrians and cyclists.
5.7 There is no current funding to upgrade the temporary infrastructure, however, there is an opportunity to develop designs and prepare a business case for further funding from Active Travel England.
6.1 The council was awarded £4.3 million of funding by Active Travel England to make improvements along the road to support active travel. £2.7 million has also been allocated from the council’s Local Transport Plan funding (spread over 3 years).
6.2 The proposals and recommendations highlighted in this report do not merit a significant amendment to the budget already identified for this scheme. The Scheme is funded primarily through grant awarded through the Active Travel Funds and Local Transport Plan funding. As there is no unsupported borrowing component identified for this scheme, there is no revenue budget implications as a result.
Name of finance officer consulted: David Wilder Date consulted: 09/10/2025
7.1 This report seeks authorisation to proceed with the amended scheme based in part on public feedback. Any resulting traffic regulation orders will need to be made in accordance with the relevant legislative requirements in the Road Traffic Regulation Act 1984 and having had regard to the Council’s public sector equality duty under the Equality Act 2010.
Name of lawyer consulted: Katie Kam Date consulted: 09/10/2025
8.1 The risk implications of not supporting the requested decisions include the potential loss of Active Travel England funding as well as an overall increase in project costs.
8.2 In addition, it puts at risk the council objectives of providing a safe, accessible and clean city and delivering the Local Transport Plan (LTP) to ensure residents, visitors and businesses are better connected.
9.1 An Equality Impact Assessment (EIA) has been carried out where positive and negative impacts were identified for disabled people, age (young and elderly), carers and pregnant people, maternity, paternity, adoption. The full EIA can be found in Appendix 4. A summary is as follows.
9.2 Positive impacts include:
· Access to safe route for people with different needs and abilities to cycle.
· Improve and make safer the current locations where pedestrians come into contact with cyclists.
9.3 A summary of the main actions identified to address potential negative impacts is:
· Incorporate design mitigations where pedestrians need to pass across cyclists at crossings and bus stops. This will include measures to highlight that pedestrians have priority.
· Engaging with appropriate stakeholder groups in the design of the proposals and considering best practice and feedback for the design elements.
9.4 Relevant stakeholder groups have been engaged in the design proposals and will continue to be engaged with as work progresses.
10.1 The scheme will improve sustainable travel and transport and support the health of those living and working in the city by providing them a safe cycle route to access key amenities and areas of the city. It includes a separated two-way cycle lane which forms part of the National Cycle Network 2 providing a strategic cycle route connecting to a neighboring authority and across the city.
10.2 New pavements, bus stops and safer, better aligned crossings and junctions are also included in the designs to improve accessibility and active travel.
10.3 Space will also be allocated in the new alignment of on-street parking for electric vehicle charging infrastructure.
10.4 Sustainable urban drainage solutions in the form of rain gardens and suitable planting areas are included in the designs. Any planting included on the scheme will be drought tolerant and require minimal maintenance. A local residents’ group who have been campaigning for a pocket park, will be engaged on the design of the green space area in their road and future maintenance support.
11. Health and Wellbeing Implications
11.1 The A259 Hove to Portslade Active Travel Scheme feeds into the council’s priorities and vision for Brighton & Hove - Make it easier for people to move around the city, by continuing to invest in maintaining and upgrading our highways network.
12. Procurement implications
12.1 The construction of the A259 Hove to Portslade Active Travel Scheme will be procured as a call-off contract under the Council’s existing Highways Services Framework. This call-off contract will exceed £1million.
12.2 Funding has already been allocated to the construction of this project via the £4.3 million awarded by Active Travel England, £1.2m Local Transport Plan Funding 2025/26 and an indicative allocation of £1.4m from the Local Transport Plan Funding 2026/27.
13. Crime & disorder implications
13.1 Not applicable
Supporting Documentation
1. A259 Hove to Portslade Active Travel Scheme Consultation Report
2. A259 Hove to Portslade Active Travel Scheme Revised Drawings
3. A259 Hove to Portslade Active Travel Scheme Consultation Technical Drawings
4. A259 Hove to Portslade Active Travel Scheme Equalities Impact Assessment
5. Local Cycling and Walking Infrastructure Plan (LCWIP)