Calls to improve the safety of a busy rural road have failed to win the support of a senior county councillor.
On Monday (October 14), Cllr Claire Dowling, East Sussex County Council’s lead member for transport and environment, considered a petition calling on the local authority to improve pedestrian and cyclist safety in Keymer Road — a stretch of the B2216 linking Ditchling and Hassocks.
The petition, established by the Ditchling Climate Action Network, called on the council to both build a sheltered cycle and footpath alongside the road and to lower its speed limit, as an “interim measure”.
Speaking at the meeting, Demelza Hill, a spokesperson for the group, said: “[The existing footpath] is the main stretch for all of our commuters and children in the village to get to Hassocks, which is where the main amenities — doctors, supermarkets and that type of thing — are.”
She added: “All the pavements coming out of our village are, on the whole, really well kept … it is just unfortunate that the main route for commuters and children is the one that is somehow overlooked.”
As part of her presentation, Ms Hill also showed to Cllr Dowling photographs of the footpath, which appeared to show that its surface had become uneven and overgrown in places. She said this had remained the case even after council work crews attended to the path in September.
In response, officers said they would ask a highways steward to reexamine the area.
The petition, which had gathered at least 536 signatures, also saw support from ward councillor Sarah Osborne (Lib Dem). In a statement read on her behalf, Cllr Osborne said: “There is no doubt in my mind that if improvements were to be made and the footways and roads made safer for pedestrians and cyclists [then] even more people would use them.
“This would have health benefits, be good for the climate and everyone’s well being by reducing traffic on this busy road.”
Before making her decision, Cllr Dowling heard from officers how the suggested works did “not achieve the benchmark score to be taken forward at this time.”
In coming to this view, officers said the section of road does not meet the council’s policy requirements for a lower speed limit, noting how it has “little to no visible frontage development.”
In a report, officers also said the road has an “excellent safety record”, pointing to crash data supplied by Sussex Police. This data, the report says, shows there have been no collisions on the road in the three years leading up to July 31 2024.
This data is at odds with an argument put forward in the petition, which referenced a fatal collision on the road. The petition did not specify a date for this incident, but contemporary news reports show a fatal collision took place in Keymer Road in October 2021.This collision was also referenced by Ms Hill in her presentation.
While the exact reason is unclear, the omission of the fatal collision appears to be the result of the area covered by the police data. A map of the collision data, which is included in the report, only accounts for a section of the road between a car park operated by Ditchling Parish Council and the county border with West Sussex. The majority of this section of road is covered by the national speed, with short 30mph sections leading into the villages at both ends.
While Cllr Dowling ultimately chose to follow the officers’ recommendation, she drew the petitioners’ attention to the council’s upcoming Local Cycling and Walking Infrastructure Plan (LCWIP).
Cllr Dowling said the council would be asking groups to put forward potential routes as part of its work on this plan and encouraged petitioners to submit proposals for Keymer Road.
