East Sussex has hit back at claims by the Countryside Agency and Campaign to Protect Rural England that the A27 Polegate bypass was a failure because it created more traffic. A joint report from the agency and CPRE said traffic forecasts for the A27 had proved inaccurate, while traffic had also crept back up on the roads they bypassed (Surveyor, 6 July).
But Bob Wilkins, director of transport and environment, said: ‘If this road had not been built, traffic would have ground to a standstill.’
The increased numbers of vehicles merely showed ‘the latent demand for it, and vindicates our decision to build it’.