Winchelsea Traffic Signs Project
What we did
Our first step was to audit the traffic
signs in and around Winchelsea (neither the Highways Agency
nor the County Council had an inventory of their signs).
We then produced an illustrated colour map
of the signs in and around Winchelsea. This became our trump
card in discussions. People were amazed at how far things
had got out of hand. Have a look for yourself!
Next, we tried to talk to the Highways Agency
and the County Council. This was not easy. Fortunately, while
looking at the traffic sign problem in Rye, we met up with
Ken Bird of the Rye Conservation Society. Ken invited us to
join a working group at the Rye Partnership. It was through
this group that we made contact and began a dialogue with
the Highways Agency and County Council.
Initially, progress was slow. In the case
of the Highways Agency, discussion was complicated by the
need to get both the Agency and its agent into the same room
at the same time as well as the rapid rotation of staff at
both organisations and the geographical remoteness of the
Highways Agency. The Highways Authority at the County Council
was more accessible but progress was delayed by their small
and ever decreasing budget.
Efforts to interest our MP, County and District
Councillors, and Icklesham Parish Council were fruitless.
However, general awareness of the problem
may have been improved by the launch in 2004 of English Heritage’s
‘Save Our Streets’ campaign and in 2005 of the
Campaign for Rural England (CPRE) ‘Clutter Challenge.
Unfortunately, East Sussex County Council has refused to sign
up to the CPRE campaign (unlike West Sussex).
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