The C7 Project: how to improve a winding, badly maintained, busy and dangerous rural road.
Those of us who rely on the C7 know only too well how dangerous it is. With its many blind bends, hazardous junctions, and speed limits of 40 – 50 mph, it is used by around 10,000 vehicles per day. Located within the South Downs National Park, and designated as a country road, it is also used extensively by cyclists, as well as by walkers and sometimes horse riders. Most of us who use this road regularly can describe the many accidents, incidents and frightening near misses we have experienced on the C7.
The ongoing concerns voiced by local residents, cycling and equestrian groups, have led communities along the route of the C7 to join together to seek to develop a strategy to reduce speeds, to increase safety, conserve the rural nature of the road, and to encourage traffic to use the parallel A26 trunk road, which – unlike the C7 – was upgraded in the 1970s to deliver fast access between the A27 and the coast.
This initiative is called the Safer C7 Project.
PROJECT UP-DATE – July
THE SAFER C7 PROJECT
The report on the C7 prepared by consultants, PJA Associates, commissioned by the project, can now be viewed on our website; www.thec7road.co.uk/safer-c7-project under ‘Project Documentation’.
The measures recommended by the consultants can also be viewed on the website under ‘Project Documentation’. The measures are presented on a series of nine maps, representing ‘slices’ of the C7, going from north to south.
If you would like to make comments on the proposals, please use the ‘Contact Us’ tab on our website, or write to us at The Safer C7 Project, Dairy Bungalow, Whiteway Lane, Northease, nr Rodmell, East Sussex, BN7 3EX.
The project team and consultants will then review the proposals in the light of comments received from the public and from ESCC representatives.
www.thec7road.co.uk/safer-c7-project
2024
At the end of last year The Safer C7 Project commissioned the specialist transport consultants, PJA, to produce a design strategy to improve safety on the C7.
PJA have now completed their baseline assessment and are in the process of developing a design strategy and identifying an initial list of design recommendations. These will be based on examples of best practice around the UK and will range in design, ambition, cost and complexity. They are also holding preliminary discussions with related interest groups, including the SDNP and ESCC.
The design measures will have the aim of reducing the impact of vehicular traffic in rural settings and bringing about driver behaviour and vehicle speeds which are more appropriate for the location and nature of the road. These options will initially be discussed with members of the Project Delivery Team, in order to agree a list of the most suitable and viable measures. These will be presented to members of the Project Advisory Group and then to local residents and other stakeholders in a number of on-line ‘engagement’ sessions (dates to be arranged).
The resulting plans will form the basis for applications to the Community Infrastructure Levy to raise the capital funds which will be needed to implement them.
The Safer C7 Project Team
