Whilst the early construction of the Bexhill/Hastings link road is supported, the proposition that should the road not be built that the development targets for Bexhill would be reduced is objected to.

The housing target of 3,700 to 4,100 dwellings is a District-wide target and is needed to provide for the 3,918 new households projected in the 2010 SHMA Up-date Report to form between 2006 and 2026.

The link road dependent housing should be re-allocated to other parts of the District - i.e. to the north and west of Bexhill and by increasing the allocations to the Rural Service Centres.

It is not acceptable to simply abandon the 1,300 dwellings and 50,000 sq m of business floorspace, both of which are key to the future development of the District, if the funding for the link road fails to materialise.

Such an approach is not a sound spatial strategy.

The Core Strategy should contain a contingency plan to demonstrate how such circumstances would be addressed.