Updates — The C7 Road

Update January 2025

The recent serious accident near Southease (January 2025) has highlighted yet again the need for safety improvements on the C7. The Safer C7 Project raised the funds needed to commission Philip Jones Associates (PJA) to produce a detailed and costed design plan to reduce speed and improve safety on the C7. Public consultations on their draft proposals, were held in July, and the draft plans have been published on the Safer C7 Project website. Since then, the proposals have been refined and there have been some preliminary discussions with ESCC and the South Downs National Park. The measures are being prioritised for a phased implementation. Outline CAD designs and associated costings are currently being produced.

ESCC and the police require any reduction in speed limits to be self-enforcing. The plans therefore focus on measures that will induce drivers to drive more slowly, as the basis for a proposed reduction in the speed limit to 30mph along most of the C7.

The villages and other settlements along the C7 are located out of sight of drivers passing through, and there are poor sight lines at junctions. Several footpaths, including the South Downs Way, as well as cycle paths, cross the C7, and many of the bus stops are hard for pedestrians to reach safely. Two schools are located within 50 mph zones.

To increase drivers’ awareness of the villages and settlements located along the C7, PJA have therefore proposed new village ‘gateways’, improved access to bus stops, and a series of new or improved crossing points. They propose that some footways along the roadside should be improved. To physically reduce traffic speed, there would be priority working points on the approaches to Northease from the north, and to Rodmell from the south. Some junctions would be remodelled, such as the junction with Wellgreen Lane by the garden centre and in Rodmell.

Phase 7 of the Egrets Way Project, between Deans Farm and the northern junction of Piddinghoe, entails a stretch of cycleway alongside the C7 and this will form part of the overall design plan for the safer C7.

The plans will form the focus of a meeting of the Safer C7 Project Advisory group in February. This important group includes representatives of all the parishes along the C7, as well as Lewes District and Town Councils, ESCC and the SDNPA.

The plans can be viewed on the project website. www.thec7road.co.uk/safer-c7-project

Update -October 2023

Thanks to contributions from local councils, parishes, grant funding bodies and local people, we have raised sufficient funds to move on to the next stage of the Safer C7 Project. We are now inviting suitable consultant organisations to submit costed proposals to:

“….assess the C7 Lewes-Newhaven Road, taking account of the planned developments to the C324, through Kingston village to its junction with the A27; produce recommendations that will reduce the safety risks for all the users of these rural roads; develop a phased strategy for implementation of the agreed improvements; produce a detailed costed plan for the initial phase. “

The full terms of reference are on the project website; www.thec7road.co.uk

Conserving and enhancing the rural character of the road is an essential element of the Safer C7 Project. We intend to commission a consultant who will apply the principles described in the South Downs National Park Authority (SDNPA) publication, Roads in the South Down National Park, prepared by Hamiliton Baillie Associates Ltd and published in 2015, and in the more recent SDNPA Adopted Design Guide, Supplementary Planning Document, published in 2022.

It is our aspiration that the design strategy for the C7 will become a best practice example of traffic calming measures on rural roads, undertaken in full harmony with their environment. We hope that the resulting strategy will act as a demonstration project and template for safety improvements on other rural roads.

A number of consultant organisations have already registered to submit proposals for this exciting project. The deadline for proposals is 31 October 2023. This is a competitive process and tenders will be evaluated against explicit criteria. A selection will be made by 30th November 2023.

Affiliate members of the project, representing local councils, parishes and other interested bodies, including the South Downs National Park Authority, and ESCC, will be invited to attend a meeting with the project delivery team in November.

We will continue to update you on progress.

Update – August 2023

We are now in the public fundraising stage. Having secured over half of the amount in pledges from grant giving bodies and the Parish Councils along the road, we are seeking the balance from our neighbours, friends and supporters. It really is an opportunity to bring some change, but also to prove that it can be done. Leaving the improvements we want to standard highways design will result in a much changed road, less feeling and beauty, less relevance, less of a sense of place.

So, please give generously - be a part of the change

Update – May 2023

So, please give generously - be a part of the change

www.crowdfunder.co.uk/p/c7

Update – March 2023

Winter has passed bringing some icy weather and a couple of days of intense crash activity on the road. Cars were seen crashed through fences, into hedges and fields, and at the inevitable junctions where simply pulling out carries a high risk of impact on normal days, let alone when ice is present.

We have been working through the winter consolidating the support of the Parishes and we are pleased to say that we are mostly in a good place. One or two Parishes remain un-convinced (when we talk about Parishes, it is not the residents who are un-convinced but those who have been elected to serve the residents) but we are confident that they do actually support what we are trying to do but are concerned about some of the finer details of delivery. We have succeeded in securing financial pledges that bring our finances into a healthy position and now look towards crowd funding to secure the balance.

This should happen around May, June time. Please do donate when the crowd funding website is notified to you - we really can make a difference to the road.

We were asked to put together a questions and answers document that some of you may find interesting - press the button below to have a look…….

Questions and Answers

Update – October 2022

You may have been wondering what is happening with the Safer C7 Project, following the survey of the 785 households who live along the C7 in June 2021.

Work has been going on behind the scenes. The Safer C7 Project is now a fully constituted body. It is being led by a Project Delivery Team formed of 5 volunteers who live along the C7, plus a representative from Northease Manor School. As the project goes forward, parishes will be consulted via a Parish Advisory Panel consisting of the chairs of all the parishes along the C7.

Our local county and district councillors (including Newhaven), Lewes Town Council, representatives of the South Downs National Park and Northease Manor School, have all agreed to act as ‘affiliates’ to the project, providing advice and support as needed. To help ensure that the plan will be suitable for implementation, ESCC Highways have agreed to provide comments at key stages.

The aim of the project is to improve safety on the C7 for all its users, while conserving its rural character.

We don’t believe that changing the speed limit alone would necessarily improve safety, unless the way people drive along this narrow, winding road also changes. We aim to use road design to bring about driver behaviour appropriate for the road, thereby allowing other road users to enjoy this beautiful landscape safely.

Did you know that there are currently at least 136 traffic signs along this relatively short road? We think that using a consistent approach along the whole length of the C7 will have more effect on speed and driver behaviour, than piecemeal improvements.

To obtain improvements to the C7, we first need to commission a road safety survey and the production of a costed road design plan by a specialist traffic engineer. Obtaining such a plan, endorsed by the community and other ‘stakeholders’, will enable us to apply for Community Infrastructure Levy funds to put the strategy in to practice.

We are in now in the process of raising the funds needed to commission the road safety survey and the production of a costed design plan. We are busy submitting applications to various charitable bodies for grant funding. If successful, these funds will be added to the contributions already made by Lewes Town Council, and the Kingston Rd and Cranedown Residents’ Association. Pledges to contribute funds have been made by Rodmell, Iford, and Southease parishes and it is hoped that Piddinghoe and Kingston parish councils will also wish to contribute. If necessary, we will seek to raise any outstanding balance by crowd funding.

Without such a design plan there is no prospect of obtaining improvements. The criteria used by ESCC to prioritise roads for expenditure on safety improvements are not favourable for country roads. Although there have been 18 accidents in 3 years on its 6.5 miles, the C7 is not included in the top 52 ‘identified crash sites’ in East Sussex (LSS data crash sites in East Sussex 2021/2.) The ESCC criterion for ranking accident sites is the number of events occurring within a 50 metre radius, rather than along a length of road.

The second criterion is the number of Killed and Seriously Injured. No account is taken of other incidents, and their impact on the local community. 13 personal injury accidents (4 serious) were reported to the police on the 6.5 mile length of the C7 from 01/7/19- 30/06/21 (Sussex Safer Roads). However, this figure is acknowledged to be incomplete. A more complete log of accidents and incidents is maintained by the Safer C7 Project on its website. You can contribute to this log by going to our website.

Once we have obtained the costed design plan, change IS possible….

Progress Update - May 2022

It has been some time since the survey was completed and we received overwhelming support for taking the project forward, and some very interesting stories about people’s experiences of using the road (see the post below). Its important that we offer a balanced point of view and so there is relevance in saying that some users of the road feel nothing needs to be done and that its perfectly usable in its current form. However as I say these were a minority but still interesting to hear their point of view.

We have been working hard to try to move the project to funding stage and experienced quite some delay whilst we confirmed the organisational and governance structure. For us to access grant funding we need to be what is called a constitutional body which means that we are governed by a written constitution that has a set of rules to it. Our original plan was for all the Parishes to help us deliver be a part of the constitution but unfortunately there are issues with that approach meaning that whilst it is our preferred option it is not feasible. It took quite a long time for us to get to this point but we are here now. A new constitution has been drafted and hopefully we can start to apply for grant funding very soon.

It is absolutely a requirement of ours that this remains a community driven approach, especially as financial support has been offered from a number of the Parishes, and so we have formed an advisory group that will be made up of representatives from each of the Parishes. We commit to interacting with that group on a level that allows for ideas and thoughts to be discussed in an open and honest forum.

We still aim to try to have the project moving for the summer.

Here’s looking ahead……

Some views from the survey in 2021

We thought that you may be interested to read people’s thoughts about the road. We have tried to be balanced for the sake of presenting a good story but bear in mind that there is overwhelming (90%) support for the project going forward.

While a clear majority of respondents expressed concern about using the C7, attitudes expressed varied from those who are concerned:

“For the 12 years I have lived here our attempts to get the Council to do anything about the danger of the C7 have been met with the response that we haven't had enough fatalities to justify reducing the speed limit. That approach entirely prioritises the commuting car driver over the local pedestrian, cyclist and resident and is completely at odds with the professed policy and strategy of the SDNP. It is time for a new approach that puts the C7 at the heart of a strategy that promotes walking and cycling not just for visitors to the SDNP but to the residents of the Lower Ouse Valley as well. Commuters who want to travel fast however can go on the A26, the C7 should be for the benefit of the residents of the Lower Ouse valley. We should not have to wait for a fatality for the road to benefit the community rather than something that reduces everyone's amenity and quality of living here. Thank you very much for conducting this much needed survey!”

and:

“Thanks for setting up this questionnaire and the proposed road survey. I have heard lots of different views around road safety (from calls to reduce the speed limit to 30 to concerns about C7 villages become 'suburbs' of Lewes). I feel that safe roads for all should be paramount wherever we live, and feel there must be a happy middle ground where the rural qualities of the C7 villages are maintained and yet also become accessible and safe for all. They are not at the moment. With children aged 9 and 6 we like to travel by foot and by bike to and from Lewes and Newhaven and yet often find our decisions on where and when to go are dictated by the busy-ness of the road. This will only increase as they start to travel more independently and want to bike to school or safely catch a bus. I fully support a road survey and feel it's really in keeping with SDNP policy and local authority objectives around active transport. I would be happy to be contacted about this in the future.”

to those who are not:

The current C7 set up is fine as it is, and appropriate for what it needs to be. If anything I would argue it actually ought to be upgraded from it’s yellow “rural” designation on an OS map to an orange B road because it is actually a significant arterial road both in its amount of usage and its positioning as the only through road on the western side of the Ouse for the best part of 3 miles. If anyone deems it needs to be made ‘safer’ for all road users then the answer is most likely to lie in an improved cycle lane/route and/or a pedestrian footpath. I would support either as long as it maintains the road’s existing 50mph speed limit. There is absolutely NO need to make the C7 safer for horses / equestrians – they already have plenty of local bridleways, a route along the river parallel to the C7 which they can use, & they also already take over & render unusable some of the key public footpaths as well (with or without permission I don’t know…) for many pedestrians who would otherwise use them. The horse have enough already. Concentrate on the pedestrians & cyclist if you’re going to focus on anyone.

and:

“There is nothing wrong with the C7. I regularly walk along it and you just have to accept this is a country road which is essential to the livelihoods of ordinary people who work along it. Any attempt to close or restrict it is symptomatic of the privilege of those pushing for this. We need the C7 available for vehicles to put food on the table. Leave it alone please!”

and, finally:

“It's perfectly good as it is. People just need to drive properly.”

Those who consider the C7 unsafe or even dangerous identify causes including the:

Speed and volume of vehicles
Poor sight lines when trying to enter the road
Winding road with blind bends
Drivers overtaking cyclists in unsafe conditions
Poor condition of the road surface
Speed limits too high for road conditions
HGVs using the road
Little to no speed enforcement
Few and inadequate footpaths

And many respondents expressed views as to what could be done to improve the road, including:

Lower the speed limit variably to 40mph or 30mph or 20mphEnforce the existing speed limits
Install speed cameras
Install speed bumps, mini roundabouts and chicanes
Construct continuous footpath/cycle path parallel to the road
Restrict/ban use of the road by cyclist
Many of those who stated that the C7 had an impact on their quality of life, cited:
Witnessing/experiencing accidents/close calls when using the road
Worrying about friends and family members using the road
Being denied access to using the road for leisure activities
Noise generated by the volume of vehicles passing

Cycling - too narrow and car speeds too high. I have been hit by overtaking car. In my view too dangerous to use. Walking - Little in way paths make it un-walkable. Driving - Speeding cars blind bends + overtaking. Avoided - many close accidents from silly overtaking.

As a keen runner, I feel unsafe crossing the C7, particularly at Swanborough, Southease and Piddinghoe where the crossings are close to bends in the fast road. If I am to run on the flat between my home in Kingston and Rodmell or Southease, I must cover a few hundred yards on the grass verge of the main road near Northease, and this also feels like a dangerous thing to do. I also worry for my children crossing the road on their bikes coming home from school in Lewes near the garden centre at Kingston, where a large hedge obscures the view, or at the corner by Spring Barn Farm, again with cars coming around a blind bend at speed. As a cyclist I would only use the C7 if I had no other option and have not felt safe on the occasions when I have.

There is a lot of traffic noise from the road in our house, particularly fast/loud motorbikes. I have been woken by traffic noise if I have the windows open. This was all significantly better in the recent lockdowns, which really highlighted how busy and noisy the road is. We get quite a few 'boy racers' using it as a track at night. For both Southease turnings they are difficult to pull out of onto the C7 - the traffic is very fast round the bends. The turning called "Narrow Road" is particularly dangerous and most villagers won't use it/advise others not to. There has been a fatality there. Trying to walk between villages other than Southease and Piddinghoe is very difficult as the traffic is so fast and there's no real paths. The Egrets way doesn't connect them, eg Southease to Northease/Swanborough. I REALLY worry for cyclists and riders using the road. There's few places to pass and drivers get frustrated. I've seen many near misses. The condition of the road surface doesn't help this either - there's lots of holes etc to navigate. In my previous house, Meadow Cottage Southease (now owned by a friend) there have been 4-5 cars that have crashed through the flint wall and ended up in the garden! It's far too over-used for a C Road.

A few of the 95% of who felt that steps should be taken to improve the safety of the C7 were not always convinced that the non-vehicular users should be attempting to use the road:

The C7 cannot be made safe for walkers. The speed limit should be 40 (not 50).

but most felt that the road should be safe for all users.

The stress engendered each time I exit Whiteway Lane onto the C7 is unnatural and is unacceptable for a local resident to have to endure. The C7 is a minor artery mainly for the use of local Ouse Valley residents; it is not a main road to be used as a by-pass or short-cut. Walkers, Cyclists and Riders should be able to use this rural road without fear of accidents occurring. A survey would indicate the best solution to the current problem.

Of the 10% who did not support the plan to commission a road design study, the reasons included:

I feel urgent action needs to be taken to make the C7 safer, simply imposing a maximum speed limit of 40 mph preferably 30mph with cameras to enforce this would make a massive difference. A study would be costly, delay action and in my view be unnecessary.

An expensive waste of money to tell us what we already know. Leading questions with no detail on costs or who is interested on a business and or financial level in promoting this. These are matters which should be left to the SDNP,ESCC and the Highways authority.

Bring speed limit down to 40mph. You don't need a road design survey, more common sense. A cycle path running alongside the road would be safer for cyclists and walkers

But one supporter of such a study said:

I support work being carried out on the C7. I do not wish to contribute - this is the direct responsibility of ESCC and not residents. A 'study' won't guarantee any action and it is costly.