Residents Protest on Worth Way
The Worth Way
The railway line from Three Bridges to East Grinstead was opened on the 9th July 1855 and extended to Tunbridge Wells in 1866. The line was closed in the 1960s and transformed in the 1970s into Worth Way and the Forest Way Country Park.
For the residents of East Grinstead and many visitors from far and wide, it has become a much valued local amenity that has taken 150 years to mature into what it is today
The ¾ mile section between Imberhorne Lane and East Grinstead station car park, as well as St. Margaret’s Loop will be virtually destroyed if Mid Sussex District Council’s preferred traffic relief solution – a ‘cut and cover’ tunnel in a two lane single carriageway 62 feet wide – goes ahead.
The council’s own figures show that the tunnel will increase rather than decrease congestion in our town.
The Plan
The West Sussex Structure Plan (2004) identified land to the West and South West of East Grinstead as being suitable for major strategic development.
In order to achieve this it is stated that the development must provide for new and improved local facilities and infrastructure including a comprehensive package of transport improvements. Essential requirements will be the early provision of a relief road to contribute towards net traffic relief in the town, improvements to the towns transport interchange and the provision of a high quality passenger transport link to Crawley / Gatwick.
In the Grinstead Strategic Development Area Action Plan – Pre-Submission Document and its accompanying Sustainability Appraisal the Worth Way has been identified as one of 2 preferred routes for the central section (Option 2e) of the proposed relief road. This would result in the destruction of the Worth Way as it exists today from a point near Imberhorne Farm, to be replaced with an ‘A’ class road to join with the Beeching Way in the town Centre.
Map of proposed route
For more detail see the full map on the
MSDC website. This is a large PDF file that requires Acrobat for viewing.
