Attempts local campaigners to receive a judicial review for the Bexhill-Hastings Link Road have been quashed after the High Court rejected an appeal.
The scheme was put on ice last year when the Department for Transport requested the local authority, East Sussex CC, consider other options prior to signing off Compulsory Purchase Orders for the road last month.
A spokesperson for the local authority said it was delighted by the decision. Building work on the 3.4 stretch of road – mooted for more than 20 years – may finally begin in January next year.
Hastings Alliance chairman, Nick Bingham, told a local paper: ‘We remain convinced that this costly, unsustainable and damaging scheme, to be funded by taxpayers, is not the answer to the problems in Bexhill and Hastings, and that alternatives have not been fully and properly examined.
‘The development has a strong and risky speculative nature and is not a good use of scarce public funds.
‘Put simply, this road scheme will be a needless blot on the landscape of a beautiful county. We will now consider our position and examine very carefully further options: the West Coast Main Line story reminds us government doesn’t necessarily make good financial decisions on transport.’
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