Petition launched in protest at road chaos in Hastings' Rock-a-Nore

The online petition was launched by Kev Hill this week.

The move comes after hundreds of holiday-makers were stuck in Rock-a-Nore car park for up to three-and-a-half hours on April 9. As soon as drivers tried to exit it, the traffic lights turned red, causing long tailbacks, according to visitors.

Kev said: “Over the past five years, with ever-increasing regularity, this car park rapidly fills to capacity resulting in instant gridlock along Rock-a-Nore Road from noon onward due to the total absence of any traffic control effectively preventing further vehicles entering the area.

“The problem is exacerbated by the traffic light sequence at the junction of Rock-a-Nore Road and The Bourne, which allows only a handful of vehicles to exit onto the main road during a given sequence. In recent times, it has taken more than three-and-a-half hours of ‘stop-start’ driving to travel the effective ‘loop’ of entering the inevitably full car park only to then have to immediately exit.”

An East Sussex County Council spokesman said: “We are aware motorists have experienced some delays at this location in recent weeks. Our traffic light contractors have identified some issues which may have had a very minor impact on traffic flow at the junction and have now resolved these.

“However, this is a very busy junction at which the access to one of the town’s main car parks with only one way in or out joins the main A259 coast road, meaning there is no easy answer and there is always likely to be some congestion on busy days.

“We will of course listen to the views expressed by petitioners and will look at whether there’s a way we can improve the situation at this junction in the future.”

The online petition can be found by clicking here.

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