
A town's traffic nightmare has been addressed by Conservative town councillor in Hailsham, Steve Keogh who's persuaded the town council to limited bookings at one of its venues.
Following Cllr Keogh's intervention, booking requirements at the town council-owned James West Centre are set to be revised, in an effort to eliminate incidents on nearby roads.
Parking issues on Brunel Drive were discussed at a meeting of the council's Assets Committee meeting following a number of dangerous driving incidents on the road last week.
"The hall was hired for a large meeting on 31st January and saw all 40 parking spaces at the centre filled, and overflow cars parking on the road which is already problematic for two-way traffic", explained Cllr Keogh who works hard on behalf of local residents.
He told the committee that he'd witnessed a number of vehicles with all four wheels on the pavement driving to get round the parked cars and other traffic.
"This is a serous issue on this road and it simply cannot be left to happen again. The council could be questioned if there was an accident on the road which happened as a result of this problem.”
Cllr Keogh claims that the centre's website promotion as 'accommodating 200 people seated' encourages large bookings which leads to a large number of vehicles which the centre simply cannot handle safely.
Cllr Keogh is working alongside East Sussex county councillor Gerard Fox and will be providing the council with a report after further discussions and agreements with ESCC, Road Safety Department and Highways.
Meanwhile, it's been agreed that future bookings be 'vetted' with the aim of reducing vehicle numbers as a short-term measure to allow the council to resolve the problem.