Bexhill Town Profile - Rother District Council

5.8 Despite the close economic relationship between Bexhill and Hastings, both
towns are served poorly in terms of strategic infrastructure. Bexhill currently
has a poor rail service to London. Currently the fastest journey time
between Hastings and London is 1 hour 33 minutes and in the peak period
journeys take longer and the quality of journey experience is poor.
5.9 Many areas of the south east with good access to the capital have benefited
from the dispersal of economic activity from London. The relatively poor
quality of rail service from/to London means that Bexhill is disadvantaged in
its ability to attract new economic activity to the town, and existing
businesses are disadvantaged.
5.10 Compared to most towns in the south east with a similar distance from
London, relatively few people commute from Bexhill to London. Those who
commute to London from the outer south east generally have higher level
skills. The relatively low level of commuting is one reason why the area has
a lower proportion of its population employed in managerial and
professional occupations than is typical for towns a similar distance from
London which enjoy better rail services to London.
5.11 In addition to rail links to London, Bexhill is also served by the East
Coastway railway line that runs from Brighton and further west, through to
Ashford via Lewes. Support remains for the railway between Hastings and
Ashford via Rye to be electrified and that the route improved to permit a fast
service to Ashford calling at Rye.
5.13 In contrast to the issue of the Hastings - Ashford service, the issue of
improving services between Hastings and Brighton. Brighton is only 35
miles from Bexhill, yet the rail journey from Bexhill to Brighton takes nearly
an hour, in part due to the fact that services need to go down into
Eastbourne and reverse out again.
5.14 The A21 is the trunk road that connects Hastings to the national motorway
network at the M25. At present the A21 is dualled from the M25 as far as
Tonbridge, with another section of dual carriageway to the east of Tunbridge
Wells. Hastings is some 30 miles from where the continuous dual
carriageway from the M25 ends. Currently, when traffic is reasonably light it
takes an hour to travel from Junction 5 of the M25 to the outskirts of
Hastings. When traffic flows are heavy the journey time is greater, adding to
drivers’ frustration at the stop/start nature of the journey and increases the
perception of Bexhill’s inaccessibility by road.
Main Issues in Bexhill
5.15 The evidence shows in Rother, 28.1% of total population is aged 65 years
and over, the highest proportion in the county. The ward with the highest
percentage is Bexhill Sackville, at 44.8% (the highest in East Sussex),
followed by Bexhill Collington (43.6%), Bexhill Kewhurst (38.1%) and Bexhill
St Marks’ (35%) (all in the top decile for the County). This compares to the
East Sussex average of 22.6%.
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