Calls for funding to improve 'dangerous' road

MP James MacCleary has written to the government about the need for funding

An MP is among campaigners renewing calls for the government to release the funding needed to make safety improvements on a major road in East Sussex.

Residents say speed limits should be reduced and the number of pedestrian crossings increased on the A259 between Brighton and Eastbourne.

A four-year-old girl was hit and injured by a car on Lewes Road, just off the A259, in Newhaven in July.

A spokesperson for the Department for Transport said: "A scheme to improve a stretch of the A259 between Brighton and Eastbourne is currently under review."

Campaigners say the busy A259 between between Brighton to Eastbourne is unsafe

James MacCleary, the Lib Dem MP for Lewes, has written to the government urging it to release the funding he says the local council needs to make the safety improvements.

He said: "The A259 is one of the most congested roads in the South East of England. It has a series of accident black spots all away along it.

"But it's not just the A259 itself, it's the feeder roads that come on to it, including the road where the four-year-old girl was badly injured in Newhaven. That is why we need to see some real safety improvements.

MacCleary said: "The funding has got caught up in the system and lost in the change over of governments, but for people in the community it's fundamentally important that we improve safety so incidents like this don't happen again."

Resident Vera Zakharov has started a petition, which has more than 700 signatures, calling for a zebra crossing to be installed on Lewes Road in Newhaven and for its speed limit to be reduced from 30mph to 20mph.

She said: "As soon as we moved to Newhaven we really felt unsafe to cross the roads. We have to hold our kids hands very tightly.

"We've had to learn how to cross safely but I don't think that's fair and it fills my heart with fear that my three-year-old might wriggle out of my hands and something might happen."

The Department for Transport said a decision on the outcome of a review into a scheme to improve the stretch of road will be announced "in due course".