Councillor Considers Hailsham Park Petition

A councillor has considered calls to improve road safety outside a Hailsham residential park.

On Monday (June 16), Cllr Claire Dowling, East Sussex County Council’s lead member for transport and environment, heard from petitioners calling for a lower speed limit and new pedestrian crossing near to the entrance of Lion House Park in Mill Road.

The entrance to the residential park sits on a bend of the road, where the speed limit transitions from 60mph to 30mph.

Lead petitioner Susan Fragniere, chairman of Lion House Park’s residents association, told Cllr Dowling how the area required new safety measures as a result of nearby developments and the changing character of the road.

She said:

“Opposite our main entrance on Mill Road there is a new build of 220 houses. On the right is another new build, in the process of construction, of another 220 houses.

“In Lion House Park we have a population of 50 years upwards, more in the latter age group and many with mobility issues. Many use sticks or walkers or mobility scooters and very importantly [have] hearing loss.

"The point I am making is that getting across the road at this junction is fraught with danger.”

A similar argument was made by ward councillor Steve Murphy (Lib Dem), who said:

“What has happened here is that the community of Lion House Park was isolated on a rural road, but … the town has reached out and is now touching [it].

“It is a difficult situation, because the residents here are faced with three to five years of construction traffic and … the traffic estimated to be coming in and out of there [once the houses are built] is 123 vehicles per hour. That is not including the postman, the baker, DHL, UPS and all the rest of them.

“What I think needs to be addressed now, fairly urgently, is a safer pedestrian crossing for the residents of Lion House Park.”

According to officers, the residents’ initial petition had asked for a 20mph speed limit by the park’s entrance. Officers said this would not be supported by council policy, due to the nature of the road.

In light of this, Ms Fragniere said the residents would be content with an extension of the 30mph zone instead.

The lead petitioner also asked the council to look into creating a chicane immediately ahead of the park’s entrance in efforts of reducing the speed of traffic.

In a report prepared for Cllr Dowling, officers note how the council is currently unable to undertake an assessment of any such scheme, as it is in the process of updating its assessment process after adopting a new Local Transport Plan.

They say such a scheme will be fully assessed for possible inclusion for funding within the council’s capital programme once this work is completed, however.

Despite this, the report goes on to indicate how there are some barriers to such a scheme going ahead.

It notes how data supplied by Sussex Police shows there have been no recorded personal injury crashes in the immediate area within the past five years (as of February 2025).

This had been disputed by the petitioners, who pointed to a recent crash in the nearby area.

Officers said they had checked these reports and concluded it had not been recorded, likely because it did not involve any injury.

The report also notes how the speed limit had been amended relatively recently, with a previous 30mph zone extended to include the access to Lion House Park in January 2023.

This extension, which was accompanied by the creation of a new footway, had been implemented as part of the construction of nearby housing developments, the report says.

Cllr Dowling said:

“Thank you to everyone for coming along today. I will be going with the officers’ recommendations.

"We have to await the assessments and that is the process we are going through now.

“That should hopefully happen in the autumn — October at the latest — and you will hear directly from officers in regards to that chicane.”