The Wealden Line Campaign has sharply criticised proposals for a new gyratory road system in Uckfield town centre that would make reopening the Lewes - Uckfield rail link all but impossible.

Under plans drawn up for Wealden and East Sussex councils by consultants Owen Williams, the new road would swallow up the old station site and send northbound traffic via the former goods yard, across the trackbed and then over the river Uck to the Bell Lane roundabout.

If it is constructed in this form, the new road will put paid to any hope of rebuilding a proper full-size station with ample car parking on its former site. The alternative, to expand and develop the present station, would be extremely expensive, because of its cramped location adjacent to the river.

But wherever the station is, the plans would burden a reopened railway with two busy level crossings practically next to each other. This would raise insurmountable operational and safety issues, as well as undermining the benefits of the road scheme. Needless to say, rail project costs would be substantially increased.

Reacting critically to the proposals, Campaign Director Brian Hart said that they "practically drive a coach and horses" through the local authorities' own trackbed protection policies. These have been in place for many years, and are designed to prevent any development that would prejudice reopening.

"The only reason the Lewes - Uckfield rail link was severed in 1969 was to make way for a road," said Mr. Hart. "It seems ironic that yet another road scheme is now seriously threatening the line's chances of ever reopening, just at the time when almost everyone has come to accept that it was crazy to close it in the first place."

The desperate need for the reinstatement of the rail link was underlined only last month by the government's Strategic Rail Authority. In its 2003 Strategic Plan, it warned that in peak hours existing Sussex routes "carry so many services that they are at the limit of what can be reliably delivered"*. The Wealden Line represents the only chance of creating new rail capacity for the area.

"We must not throw away the chance of recreating a tremendously important regional transport asset for the sake of a badly thought out in-town road scheme." said Mr. Hart.

* Strategic Rail Authority, The Strategic Plan 2003 - Route Descriptions, p.25

24 February 2003