Lindfield High Street and the possible Traffic Restriction Order (TRO)

In 2019 an application was made to West Sussex County Council (WSCC) for a Traffic Restriction Order designed to limit HGVs from using the section of the Lewes Road between the High Street and Gravelye Lane as a short cut, avoiding WSCC’s recommended routing on the A272 and increasing pressures on the High Street junction. Despite all parties recognising the difficulties of the Lewes Road / High Street junction, residents’ support with over 1200 signatures and significant work by a group of Lindfield residents and Lindfield Parish Council (LPC), WSCC declined to support the application.

Since then, LPC and the residents have worked to gain further support, with Lindfield’s Mid Sussex District Councillors and Mims Davies, MP, visiting the junction and expressing their support.

Continued dialogue with WSCC has led to Highways advising that they are prepared to consider a further application to restrict HGVs but have recommended that a consultation be undertaken by a professional firm to independently analyse both the support for and objections against the proposal. Accordingly, as soon as coronavirus restrictions start to ease, the consultation will be launched by Lindfield Parish Council and the Project Centre via a dedicated website alongside direct communication with local businesses, schools, hauliers and other interested parties.

Lindfield Parish Council have underwritten the £6,500 cost of this consultation and MSDC hold ‘Section 106’ monies which can be used to implement the scheme, if the application to WSCC is successful.

Please look out for the launch of the consultation and contribute to it, both to evidence the support from the local community and underpin the reasons for WSCC to consider the application favourably.

Hopes to reduce dangerous traffic at Lewes Road, Lindfield

A group of concerned residents are campaigning to make a key junction in Lindfield safer.

Lindfield Traffic Group is made up of a number of people who are concerned about the safety of pedestrians and cyclists using Lewes Road at the junction to the High Street, as well as the impact which large trucks are having on the village in general.

Lewes Road measures 4.65m wide at the narrowest point by the old Post Office and only has a single pavement for pedestrians. Yet it doesn’t have any weight or width restrictions (unlike both Denmans Lane and Hickmans Lane).

When West Sussex County Council’s Economy, Planning and Place Directorate was consulted by Mid Sussex District Council regarding large housing developments off Gravelye Lane. it advised that HGV routing should be via A272 and specifically not from the High Street (B2028) and Lewes Road (B2111). However the group has discovered that hauliers of all kinds appear to not be following this recommendation. On this basis, Lindfield Traffic Group is proposing a weight limit of 7.5 tonne on the road is the only way to safeguard both pedestrians and cyclists.

Members of the group are encouraging concerned residents of the village to add their names to an online petition, which will be open until the end of January, after which it will be submitted to WSCC.

The petition can be found here: www.change.org/p/lindfield-village-hgv-weight-restriction