A Hastings council member has urged the release of findings from a review of a problematic highway scheme.
At a gathering of East Sussex County Council’s executive on Tuesday (March 11), Labour member Godfrey Daniel pressed the authority to make public an evaluation of the Queensway Gateway Road, a link between the A2690 and the A21 Sedlescombe Road North.
His request came after a performance report presented at the gathering outlined how the council’s investment programme is projected to feature a £5.180m overspend largely attributable to the scheme.
Cllr Daniel mentioned that officers had confirmed the figure as £4.846m specifically for the Queensway Gateway Road initiative.
He noted that the work had created disruption for an extended period during construction, affecting not only Hastings but also neighbouring areas including the constituency represented by Liberal Democrat group leader and member for Battle and Crowhurst, Kathryn Field.
He observed that many had labelled the scheme a disaster, and that such a significant cost overrun for what amounts to a relatively short stretch of road geographically was hard to accept.
The council’s director of communities, economy and transport, Ruper Clubb, explained that multiple elements had contributed to the expenditure.
He noted that despite being a relatively brief section of road, the scheme had presented considerable delivery challenges, particularly unexpected problems encountered once work commenced on site, such as complex ground conditions, utility diversions, and complications with the main A21’s foul sewer system that necessitated design modifications.
He explained that members would recognise this was a scheme the authority decided to take forward and complete because of the recognised benefits the Queensway Gateway Road would bring in enhancing connectivity and unlocking further commercial and industrial prospects.
He added that it was worth noting the cost covered a ten-year period of inflation, and members would recall that construction inflation at certain points had reached 25 per cent during 2022/23.
He expressed satisfaction that the road had been operational for several months and traffic was moving smoothly.
However, Cllr Daniel called on the council to share details of a broader examination of the scheme.
The Labour member indicated he had seen exchanges between one of his residents and Conservative council leader Keith Glazier.
According to Cllr Daniel, the council leader had informed the resident in a letter dispatched in January that the council was preparing an evaluation document that would be anticipated to contain conclusions on insights to be gained.
Cllr Daniel asked where this evaluation document was, expressing concern that it might be shelved until the next administration, as he believed many who had been significantly impacted by the scheme needed answers about what had gone wrong.
He emphasised that this represented a substantial sum that could have made a meaningful impact on East Sussex if directed toward other initiatives.
The scheme had involved government grant funding administered by an organisation called the South East Local Enterprise Partnership, which has since ceased operations.
SELEP had endorsed the project’s initial business case in March 2015, agreeing to an arrangement where £15m would be passed from SELEP to East Sussex County Council and then to a contractor.
This contractor was Sea Change Sussex, a not-for-profit regeneration organisation with partial local council ownership. It had previously acted as proponent for the scheme and secured its initial planning consent in 2015.
When SELEP approved the business case, the project had been anticipated for completion by November 2016, nearly a decade before the road ultimately opened fully.
The project first encountered difficulties when opponents initiated legal proceedings challenging Hastings Borough Council’s decision to grant planning permission.
According to a report from that period, the borough council had chosen to have the planning consent overturned by mutual agreement before a hearing took place, following counsel from its legal advisers.
This was based on the assertion that members had not been provided with sufficient details regarding traffic modelling, air quality and ecology when they made their original determination.
Sea Change obtained fresh planning consent in January 2016, but the setback meant building work did not commence until 2017.
The bulk of construction was ultimately finished by July 2019.
Yet difficulties persisted concerning the final stretch of the road, its junction with the A21 Sedlescombe Road North.
The original plans had involved constructing a roundabout where a car dealership stood, but this proposal collapsed when Sea Change proved unable to acquire the necessary land.
Sea Change maintained that the county council should have obtained the land via a Compulsory Purchase Order to enable the project to proceed as initially conceived.
Following this, alternative proposals were drawn up for a signal-controlled junction in place of a roundabout.
In recent statements published on its website, Sea Change indicated its position was that the construction work involved in creating this junction exceeded what had originally formed part of its contractual obligations.
It also noted that by December 2023 it had formulated a proposal intended to serve as the foundation for a final-phase contract covering the remaining work.
However, the council chose to assume direct control of the project in March 2024, engaging its highways contractor Balfour Beatty to finish the work.
The new junction was finished in September the previous year and the road is now accessible to the public.