It's driving us round the bend, say motorists

The Sussex Express has received a number of calls from irate motorists this week who are fed up with sitting in town centre gridlock.

One spent nearly 30 minutes crawling from Denton to Newhaven because of new traffic lights at the junction of the swing bridge and South Way.

Ironically, the work, which follows hot on the heels of disruptive railway flyover repairs, is a bid to improve traffic flow through the town centre by changing the layout allowing South Way access to Bridge Street.

Heather Garman, of Kings Avenue, Mount Pleasant, feared the delays could become permanent.

She said: 'There are a lot of unhappy people in Newhaven now because of the improvements. Many people seem unaware that the traffic lights at the swing bridge are going to be a permanent fixture, and believe that once the roadworks are done they will be taken away and that the nightmare of the traffic build-up we are suffering will go.

'Unfortunately, they are here to stay, and with other improvements possibly still in the pipeline it will probably get worse.

'How can it be right for the council to spend so much of our money making our lives a misery?'

Mrs Garman failed to see the aim of improvements which had traffic queuing to Denton Corner and under the flyover.

She said: 'What I want to know is how come all this traffic chaos is appropriate for such a small percentage of people, who could go round the one- way system once and reach Bridge Street like they always have.'

The Mayor of Newhaven, Dennis Forsdike, had also been inundated with complaints about the East Sussex County Council scheme.

He said: 'People have complained to me about it and I have been stuck in the traffic myself.'

He got in touch with the county council, fearing the lights were malfunctioning due to the chaos they caused. But he was reassured things would improve.

He said: 'We were warned that during the first weeks there would be delays but that it would progressively get better. When the complete system is finished it will be computer controlled to alleviate the build-up of traffic.

'It seems horrendous at the moment but we have been told it will get better.'

A spokeswoman for East Sussex County Council said it was monitoring the situation and considering using manual traffic lights at peak times to cut down on tailbacks.

She added: 'The traffic lights will become permanent and more sensitive to traffic but obviously they are also there to help pedestrians cross.'

The work is due to finish by the middle of March.