Lane of A259 could be replaced by cycle path

Drivers will still be able to park vehicles on the A259 between Fourth Avenue and Hove Street if the plans are approved

Councillors will soon decide if plans to reroute the cycle path on Hove seafront will go ahead.

The cycle path starts at Duke’s Mound, near Brighton Marina, runs along Madeira Drive and joins the A259 at the Palace Pier up to Wharf Road in Hove.

At Fourth Avenue in Hove, however, the route leaves the A259 and goes along King’s Esplanade, behind the King Alfred Leisure Centre, before rejoining the roadside at Hove Street.

The proposals would see a two-way cycle path installed along the 600m (1,968ft) stretch of the A259 between Fourth Avenue and Hove Street, reducing westbound traffic to one lane.

Cyclists currently follow the route shown in red, but the plans would see a new cycle path installed along the route shown in green

A second lane of traffic would resume from Hove Street where the cycle path moves onto the pavement area.

The pavement area is already used by both cyclists and pedestrians. The two-way cycle path would take up a larger area of the pavement under the plans.

Brighton & Hove City Council estimates it will cost £4.3m to install the new 1.1-mile (1.81km) stretch of cycle lane between Fourth Avenue and Wharf Road.

The purple route shows where the second lane of westbound traffic resumes and the cycle path moves onto the current shared pedestrian and cycle pavement

The council said it would use £500,000 it had received from Active Travel England, £1.2m reallocated from the Marine Parade cycle lane scheme and £2.6 million from the council’s local transport plan funding to pay for the cycle lane project.

The £1.2m Marine Parade funding was given to the council by the Department for Transport to pay for a stretch of cycle lane on the A259 between the Old Steine and Brighton Marina.

The council will have to ask the DfT if it can instead use the money to pay for its cycle lane project in Hove.

A spokesman for the council said: “Marine Parade remains a priority area and would be delivered as part of the wider plans for a high-quality cycle route along the entire seafront.”

Councillors will make a decision on the plans at a meeting on 27 June.