A259 road

Proposed route of the Bexhill Hastings Link Road

In 2008, East Sussex County Council proposed building a new link road between Bexhill and Hastings, to form a 3.5 miles (5.6 km) long road from its junction with the A259 in Bexhill, to a junction with the B2092 Queensway in Hastings.[15]

The South East Regional Assembly included the scheme within its Regional Funding Advice package.[16] This was provisionally signed off in July 2009 by the Department for Transport, with the caveat that individual schemes would still need to be assessed for value for money and compatibility with greenhouse gas emission targets.[17] Although originally estimated at £45 million, the scheme was now expected to cost over £100 million. £33 million was expected to come from developer contributions, but the County Council was unable to obtain them. "Although opportunities will be explored to seek developer contributions in the future, at the present it has been considered prudent to plan to fund all future local contributions from the County Council's capital programme".[18]

The county council said: "The driving force of the scheme is to enable essential economic regeneration for Bexhill and Hastings, which is currently compromised by the poor accessibility within and between the two towns... the Bexhill Hastings Link Road would make a major contribution to meeting the need to improve access between the towns and linking Trunk Roads which serve the area". They also identified that the scheme would provide "faster and more reliable access to the Conquest Hospital", "easier access to jobs", "create access to much-needed additional housing"; and that it would "re-route traffic from less suitable roads" and "reduce the number of accidents on local roads".[19]

A number of organisations objected to the scheme. The Hastings Alliance,[20] which is supported by 11 national bodies, including the Campaign for the Protection of Rural England, the Council for National Parks, and WWF-UK, and also 16 local groups[21] pointed to the Hastings Five Point Plan, commissioned by the South East Regional Assembly, which found that the key requirement for regeneration is to "improve the strategic accessibility of Hastings – that is Hastings' access to London, other major towns, and other parts of the South East" and says that improving rail links are fundamental to regenerating that area.[22] In addition they objected to the impact on the Combe Haven valley, a Site of Special Scientific Interest, which would be cut in two by the scheme. The Campaign for Better Transport say that, contrary to government guidance, the county council had "never really considered whether building a link road is the best way to improve transport on the Sussex coast".[23] The Woodland Trust also objected, as the road would seriously impact on the Marline Valley Woods Site of Special Scientific Interest, an ancient ghyll woodland. This sort of woodland is only found on steep sided valleys and are hugely important for wildlife but are highly sensitive to pollution. The road would also pass within metres of Church wood (ancient woodland), and other nationally and locally protected wildlife sites.[24] Friends of the Earth were concerned that building roads generates more traffic in the surrounding area, and would result in more vehicles using the roads to the north creating pressure in for communities on the approach roads[25] (such as the A21 and the A28). They also believed it would create pressure to build a 'Hastings Eastern Bypass' which would pass through the High Weald Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty, which they claim is one of Britain's finest landscapes. The Sussex Wildlife Trust "strongly" objected to the road stating that "the environmental damage that will result from this scheme is unacceptable and will alter the ecology of the Combe Haven valley for ever."[26]

A public inquiry into the scheme started on 10 November 2009.[27]

When the Bexhill to Hastings Link Road was eventually approved, then changes also required to the A21 Baldslow / Queensway (which leads to the link road).

The entire project was completed in December 2015 at a cost of around £120 million.[28]

In 2009, Brighton and Hove City Council, Adur District Council and West Sussex County Council, and the Shoreham Port Authority proposed to spend a £5million grant from the Department for Transport to 'improve the A259 in relation to a new project to build 10,000 homes scheme.[29]