WAS IT REALLY WORTH IT?

WAS it a worthwhile exercise ... or not? Pundits are still working their way through a mass of statistical information and conflicting views on whether Lewes Streets Ahead was a winner. Part of Lewes High Street was closed to motorists on Friday and Saturday. Cliffe High Street was made traffic-free on Saturday. But it appeared to early Friday morning commuters that the closure of just 50 yards of Lewes High Street was more than enough to plunge the town into rush-hour traffic chaos. However, travel plan officer Brian Deval said that was partly due to a nine tonne lorry which became stuck in the High Street at an inconvenient moment. There were 19 traffic monitoring points set up around the town and students from Lewes Tertiary College worked with council staff to question visitors about how they travelled to Lewes. On early Friday morning things did not look at all rosy. Motorists waited up to 45 minutes to get into Lewes and pedestrians breathed in fumes from the exhausts of hundreds of idling cars, buses and lorries. One furious driver said: If they want a local town without visitors and commuters, this is the way to go about it. At the very least, bring in these restrictions between 9am and 4.30pm so that workers have a chance to get in and out. Uckfield resident Paul Watson, who had just driven into Lewes, said: If my wife says let s go shopping in Lewes again, I ll say we re going to Tunbridge Wells. If they are going to do something like this, they should think it through. And open the Lewes-Uckfield rail line while they are at it. Retired planner and keen walker Michael Barnard said: Drivers are obviously upset but the situation was also worse for pedestrians. There was a mass of standing traffic on Friday morning from Westgate to Station Street - all belching out fumes. But another pedestrian said: At least they are trying. There are always going to be teething problems, but don t throw the baby out with the bath water. Keep working on it. At the railway station early Friday morning, taxi drivers were not happy. It s just taken me 45 minutes to bring a customer in from Ringmer, said Matthew Ashwood. The fare was probably 50 per cent more than it usually is. This morning I ve seen tempers getting frayed. I don t want to see this exercise repeated. Perhaps they should think about closing the street after the morning rush hour and re-opening it before the evening one. Wayne Milward, another taxi driver, said: It s been a nightmare this morning. To get from Anne of Cleves to the railway station took 20 minutes. But after the Friday morning rush hour, the traffic flow improved and Cliffe was packed with Saturday crowds. Lewes Chamber of Commerce is reserving judgement until it receives feedback on market research. Council lead transport member Cllr Anthony Reid said: We have learned a lot on where the traffic went and the impact on air quality, but we want to hear more from individuals and organisations. Lewes District Council leader Cllr Ann De Vecchi said: On Saturday good weather and entertainment helped bring a lot of people into Cliffe but we need to know how shoppers, residents and visitors felt about the experiment, and the impact on shops and businesses. * Park-and-ride buses operating on Saturday carried 192 passengers. Service 27A (operating free on Saturday) carried 329 passengers, compared with a normal Saturday total of 130.