DARLING URGED TO DITCH �47m HASTINGS LINK ROAD

LINK ROAD WILL DESTROY VALLEY AND COST JOBS, EURO-MP WARNS

A proposed �47m link road joining Hastings and Bexhill will increase car
use, shift rather than tackle congestion, undermine regeneration and ruin
some of the most beautiful countryside in the South-East, Green Party
Euro-MP Caroline Lucas has warned.

Dr Lucas, whose South-East England constituency includes Hastings and
Bexhill, has called on Transport Secretary Alistair Darling to reject the
£47m scheme �' in line with the decision to abandon near-identical plans for
a Hastings Western Bypass in 2001.

'I have asked Alistair Darling to reject the planned Hastings-Bexhill Link
Road �' for exactly the same reasons as his predecessor rejected the earlier
proposal for a Hastings Western Bypass,' said Dr Lucas.

'The road would encourage more car use and do nothing to tackle the
congestion that's choking the two towns - not to mention destroying one