Icklesham Parish Council have received the following message from East Sussex County Council regarding the upcoming road closure in Winchelsea Beach commencing on 30th September:-
As will already be aware, there is a planned closure of Pett Level Road, Pett Level/Winchelsea, due to start on the 30/09/24 with work currently scheduled to complete on 01/11/24. This closure is to allow for various work to be undertaken by East Sussex Highways with the road closed between 07:00 and 19:00 on Mondays to Fridays. Whilst bus service 101 will be able to operate normally in the evenings and at weekends, the County Council has been considering how to provide bus services for the communities along the C92 road between Ore village and Winchelsea at the times work is being undertaken on the closed section of the route.
The closure will prevent service 101 running its normal route between Hastings and Rye when the road is closed. Coming from Hastings, the service will follow normal route to Ore village where it will serve the stop at the Post Office rather than opposite Co-op in Fairlight Road. It will then operate non-stop along the A259 to Sea Road, Winchelsea Beach, where it will double-run to serve Winchelsea Beach before continuing into Rye as normal. Due to turning issues at Winchelsea Beach, ‘The Ship’ will be the most southerly stop served. The bus will serve ‘The Ship’ and points from there to Rye at the same time as normal. Similarly, buses from Rye will serve their regular stops through to Winchelsea Beach, The Ship, returning to the A259 and running non-stop to Ore, stopping at Tesco Express and then picking up normal route and timetable into Hastings town centre.
For passengers living at the Fairlight end of the route, the County Council has arranged for a shuttle bus to run between the hours of 07:00 and 19:00. Generally this will run to/from Ore village although three journeys will run to or from Rye, primarily to support movements of young people to/from Rye College. The timetable is attached. You will note that passengers wanting to travel to/from Hastings or Rye will be able to change to relevant services at Ore. You will also note that the two 347 journeys that serve the Fairlight area on school days will be operating as normal and therefore supplement the shuttle service during school term.
The shuttle route, operated by Stagecoach, will be numbered 901 and this detail will be carried on a card displayed in the windscreen. The vehicle’s destination display will show “Fairlight”, “Ore” or “Rye” without a number.
As indicated above, it will not be possible for the Stagecoach buses to serve the section of route between ‘The Ship’ and Winchelsea Beach Café nor the section of route from Waites Lane to the Cliff End area with the exception, in the latter instance, of that limited service on the 347, mentioned above. Accordingly, the County Council will make its Flexibus service available for these areas during the closure although access east of Chick Hill may be limited due to the location and type of works being undertaken at any particular time. As you are likely aware from previous correspondence, Flexibus is our ESCC ‘on demand’ transport service. Flexibus can be accessed by Smartphone or tablet: via the Ride Pingo app Transit that moves with you | Pingo (ridepingo.com) Travellers can also call: 01273 078203 (9am to 5pm, Monday to Friday. All bookings must be made through the app or the Call Centre as no bookings can be taken directly by drivers. If booking on behalf of someone else, telephone booking is recommended so that the correct passenger’s name is assigned to the trip. If booking on behalf of someone else, telephone booking is recommended so that the correct passenger’s name is assigned to the trip. More details for the Flexibus service can be found here Flexibus | East Sussex County Council.
We have written to the Headteacher of Rye College and parents/guardians whose children qualify for transport assistance from the Council regarding the arrangements for children’s journeys to/from that school. Details will also be sent to parents whose children qualify for transport assistance, attend secondary schools in Hastings, and would use the 101 from the areas that it cannot serve.
Stagecoach is making known the details of these arrangements and these are already on the company’s website. Anything you can do to ensure bus users in your communities are aware of the arrangements would be appreciated.
