A significant challenge is facing people travelling today and tomorrow on the A27 between the Glynde turning and the Alfriston turning in East Sussex between Lewes and Eastbourne. This weekend on Saturday 30th & Sunday 31st July 2022 there is an event is taking place in Firle which is a called the Firle Beacon – Rally, sprint and supercar festival. According to their website it “offers automotive aficionados the chance to see over 200 rally, sprint and retro cars go head to head in demonstration, sprints and displays of rally driving skill. For more information and to book tickets please visit the official event website” That website is well worth a visit. However the challenge is how people can visit the location and how it has been organised. The company that has been arranging the transport direction is called SEP Events which is a business that is described as Event Traffic Management on their website. According to their team that were laying down their arrangements this morning, they had initially proposed supplying temporary traffic lights so that the people travelling to Firle from the Lewes direction could turn across the A27 into the Firle area. However the Highways England refused to allow that to take place. So they have been obliged to prevent travellers turning right onto the Firle Bostal, Wick Street and Heighton Street from the Lewes direction. They have also been obliged to prevent people from turning into Charleston and the other premises in that section from the West. So the expectation is that people will travel from the Firle Bostal location to the roundabout at the Alfriston turning location and the drivers are expected to turn around at that roundabout and come all the way back to the Firle Bostal location. If people choose to do this it will add 10 miles onto their journey and it will add petrol for the driver and fume for the area. It will also significantly increase the number of cars and vehicles travelling from the Alfriston area to the Firle area. However the reality is that some people will not be willing to travel the extra 10 miles and so as I saw this morning some people will be turning left from the A27 into other small roads and then do a U turn and cross the A27 from the left location so that they have reduced their journey. This will create many other challenges. When people leave the location if they came from the East side of Firle they will then have to travel a couple of miles to the roundabout that is the connection to Newhaven and return along the A27. Along with the challenge for people visiting the Firle Beacon event, the several hundred people who live in the Firle area will also be forced to travel an extra 10 miles to get to their premises if they travel out over the weekend.

It would be very useful if SEP Events could be enabled to do what they had proposed and we need to challenge the Highways agency.