OUT IN THE FIELD: Crossing chaos in Eastbourne town centre
I don’t know what exactly the method in the madness is at the rejigging of the pedestrian crossings outside Eastbourne Railway Station. But I do know two things: people aren’t at all happy about it and it’s going to take at least 62 weeks before it’s completed. I have also come to the conclusion that you quite literally take your life in your hands when trying to cross from outside the London & County Wetherspoons to get to the station. It’s a mass of temporary lights and red barriers and not helped by the fact that Gildredge Road is now the new Diesel Alley – and full of nice new shiny blue bus stops with a new dedicated bus lane under construction from one end to the other. In among the mayhem, the contractors have also taken away the recycling bins from behind the Tourist Information Centre and blocked off Cornfield Road by the TIC so it’s impossible for elderly people to get out by the banks. At the end of it all there will be a 20 mile an hour zone within Cornfield Road, Terminus Road, Gildredge Road and several connecting roads, a one way traffic flow between the junction of Terminus Road/Gildredge Road in an easterly direction towards Cornfield Road, new bus lanes in Cornfield Road, Terminus Road and Gildredge Road, alteration to on street parking arrangements in Gildredge Road, Cornfield Road and other roads within the scheme extent and lots of banned turns, prohibition of vehicles and revised one way traffic. Before that though is 62 weeks of complete chaos.