RPC Projects

 St Aubyns

St Aubyns Transferred to the Parish Council. We are delighted to confirm that the former St Aubyns Field, Chapel and Pavilion have been acquired by Rottingdean Parish Council (RPC) from Fairfax Properties after exercising an option granted under Developer Contributions for Planning Consent (Section 106 provision). In accordance with these obligations Fairfax Properties have renovated the Chapel and Pavilion back to good condition and landscaped the Field for public use with the addition of a Local Area of Play for under 6 year olds and an artistic feature “The Sweeps”. With the support of BHCC and a Forestry Commission grant, and supported by Brighton Permaculture Trust 36,  trees of various hardy species have been planted to enhance the Field providing blossom, fruit, shelter and future habitat for wildlife.This acquisition provides a 3.5 acre open space right in the centre of the  village for formal and informal recreation. The future use of the two historic buildings has yet to be decided but will bring additional community facilities for generations to come. 

We celebrated the opening of  St Aubyns community field on Saturday 28th June and have now put Field mainatence arrngements in place to ensure that this new open space remains in good order for eveyione to enjoy. 

St Aubyn’s Community Field - update December 2024

As we move towards the revised handover date of late April, work is continuing at pace to ensure that all of the key elements of St Aubyn’s Community Field are brought up to the standard required to open the field to public use next spring. A recent field inspection noted good progress in all areas, including the artistic component in the centre of the field and the newly renovated pavilion in the northwest corner. The grass is bedding in nicely, and the newly planted trees along the southern edge of the field are settling in well. The community consultation exercise in 2022 indicated a strong desire in the community to bring colour and greenery to the field, both for reasons of amenity and to attract bird and insect life as part of our aims to enhance the natural environment within the village. An area has already been set aside to plant a wildflower meadow along the eastern side of the field, with sowing about to commence. Bird and bat boxes have already been installed in a number of trees on the north side by Steyning Road. There is also demand in the community for more trees on the field, beyond those already in place on the south side and along The Twitten.

We are very pleased to announce that, with considerable help from the City Parks Department at Brighton and Hove City Council, we have been awarded a grant for 36 trees by the Forestry Commission from its Urban Tree Challenge Fund, with a view to planting these in early spring a few weeks ahead of the formal handover of the field. We are equally pleased to be working in partnership with the Brighton Permaculture Trust (BPT) to ensure that we identify the best possible mix of species to put in place two areas of community orchard, protected from the prevailing winds by stands of larger shade trees to provide the necessary windbreaks. BPT have drawn up a draft planting scheme (see below) and provided expert advice on the tree varieties best suited to the relatively exposed, coastal setting of the field. BPT have also advised that additional protection can also be obtained by planting stands of hardy shrubs as part of the windbreaks. Both City Parks and BPT will be continuing to work with us to ensure the trees are planted to the required standard, properly nurtured during the early years of growth, and well maintained in the longer term. The newly planted trees will stand between one and three metres high. As they reach full maturity the biggest trees are not expected to grow any taller than the existing line of trees alongside the Twiiten



Finally, we are also delighted to report that through the generous support and hands on help of the Rottingdean in Bloom team, led by Helen Clark, 250 daffodil bulbs have been planted at the north west entrance to the park and around the war memorial by the pavilion. These will provide a cheering splash of colour when they come into bloom next year.

Future Lighting of the Twitten 

A recent site visit was undertaken by Rottingdean Parish Council and relevant experts to assess the potential to install lighting on the Twitten in parallel with the St Aubyns development completion.
• The Twitten will become an essential pedestrian link for Rottingdean residents including the new residents of the St Aubyns development. Increased pedestrian traffic will use the improved network of paths around the Twitten to particularly access the main bus routes, the High Street, Newlands Rd, Steyning Rd, the seafront, the new open space, the churches and the two primary schools.
• The Twitten will be bordered by high walls on both sides of the southern half of the Twitten and a high wall and high hedge on the northern half. There will be three main entrances into the new field side of the development and two entrances coming from the High Street side of the development.
• The Twitten will be used during dark mornings and evenings as well as daylight but has not had any lighting along its length in the past. Within the new development there is no specific lighting plan for the Twitten but there will be some light overspill from the new houses and some limited street lighting on the development adjacent to the Twitten. There is no lighting planned around the main entrances to the field side of the development at the moment.
• The Parish Council, Ward Councillor Fishleigh and local residents see the future importance of the Twitten for pedestrian traffic and are keen that it will have adequate lighting.
 
During a recent site visit organized by RPC the following was suggested:
• Providing lighting to the Twitten is complex. Physical placement of power supply and lights is difficult and potentially costly given the narrow area of the footpath.
• The impact of any lighting plan needs to consider not only the light to the path itself but also the overspill onto neighbouring houses, and the impact on the wildlife.
• The Parish Council will request BHCC for a lighting design assessment to consider the options for lighting that will ensure a safe pedestrian route while taking into account the impact on adjoining houses and the environment.
• Relevant BHCC departments will be approached to raise awareness of the issue and gain support for a solution.

The Parish Council vote to accept the transfer of St Aubyns Field, Chapel, Pavillion, War Memorial and Water Fountain

Rottingdean Parish Council at their meeting on the 7th of February 2022 agreed, subject to contract, to accept the transfer of the following land and buildings located on the old St Aubyns school site in the centre of Rottingdean: a three and half acre green space (the former playing field), the former cricket pavilion, the war memorial and the former school chapel. This will bring these important heritage assets in to public ownership for the future use of the community.
This decision by the Parish Council follows some weeks of intensive work to ensure that the financial liability of accepting the transfer was understood, that the land and building being transferred could be bought into community use and that governance arrangements could be put into place to manage these assets and raise funds to cover future costs once the one off maintenance payment of £350,000 from the developer is exhausted. 
Work can now start on the contract and transfer deed,  between the Parish council and Fairfax properties the company developing the site, which will include details of the restoration and repair work to be carried to the field, sports pavilion and chapel prior to transfer.   
Once we are happy with the legal agreement we can start to share ideas coming forward from community organisations as to how these assets could be developed to benefit the village.  The transfer is expected to take place in September 2023 when building work on the site is complete. 
 

Air Quality Management

The High Street Air Quality Management Area Measures

The Experimental Road Traffic Order (ERTO) and supporting measures to address unacceptable levels of pollution in Rottingdean High Street were put in place in October 2019 for 18 months and included yellow hatching at the narrowest point, the installation of a chicane - the ‘planter’, and no right turn out of West Street (subsequently made permanent). However, because of the impact of the Covid 19 pandemic on traffic flow the ERTO was extended for a further 18 months through until October 2022. These measures are now to be reviewed by the Environment Transport and Sustainability Committee (ETSC) at Brighton and Hove City Council (BHCC).

The joint Parish Council/BHCC working group met to discuss the measures on 28th October and Councillors have since been considering the data from the air quality sensors in more detail and safety concerns expressed by a number of residents. 

The significant improvement in air quality since the measures were introduced as shown by the sensor data is welcomed by Parish Councillors  (see below) This indicates that the measures in place have made a contribution to improving the air quality in the High Street. However, the precise contribution of the measures either collectively or individually is less clear and there are some ambiguities in the data that are worth further investigation. In particular, the report to the ETSC committee in March 2021 suggested that the readings from the sensor closest to the planter indicated less of a reduction in pollutants and commented that vehicle queuing and launching, [which is more likely around the planter], were contributors to emissions.

This suggests that the planter could be less effective in contributing to the reduction in pollution than the other measures. In addition, there are some inherent safety issues associated with the planter that have been raised by a number of residents. In particular:
• Southbound queuing vehicles obscure the zebra crossing for northbound traffic
• Southbound traffic is forced to travel on the northbound carriage way to pass the planter close to the junction with Park Road
• Southbound traffic tends to accelerate around the planter to catch a green light at the junction with the A259.

In view of this and comments by residents made at the meeting on the 7th November 2022, the Parish Council wrote to the joint Parish Council/Brighton and Hove City Council working group on the 29th November 2022 requesting that the ETSC should be asked to consider adopting the hatching near the junction of the A259 as a permanent measure and removing the planter for a period of 12-months. This would enable any positive or negative impact on air quality of its removal to be measured and respond to the safety concerns expressed by a significant number of Rottingdean residents.  This statement was ratified at the Council meeting on 5th December 2022.

The  ETSC agreed to the removal of the planter the Parish Council and to monitor the impact in both traffic flow and air quality. The aim is to review the results during 2025. 

5 December 2022

Extension to the Experimental Traffic Order - E.T.O.

Brighton and Hove City Council Air Quality Action Plan (2022 to 2027)

This revised plan has been produced as part of the City Council's  statutory duties under the Environment Act 1995, as required by the Local Air Quality Management (LAQM) framework. Where an area is identified as at risk of non-compliance with legal limits of Nitrogen Dioxide (NO2), an Air Quality Action Plan is needed. This plan is required for the 6 Air Quality Management Areas (AQMAs) that were declared by the council in 2020, because monitoring and modelling showed a risk of non-compliance with toxic NO2 and therefore a danger to public health. The full plan, which is now available for comment, can be seen here

Rottingdean High Street is one of the 6 areas (Air Quality Managment Areas) covered by the plan. The draft plan includes air quality data taken from the two diffusion tubes on either side of the southern end of the High Street (See page 21). These are part of a network of 60 tubes across the City with the data being collated and analysed by BHCC and shared on their website. You can comment on the plan here

A graph and accompanying data from the High Street and Marine Drive diffusion tubes are shown below. 

Air Quality Data on Rottingdean High Street and the A259

E23-10 High Street Rottingdean (west side) 53.7 48.4 46.2 47.0 41.3 37.7 38.4 35.3 37.0 35.2 31.7 27.8
E22-09 High Street Rottingdean (east side) 48.5 44.0 42.5 44.5 39.7 39.0 39.9 40.9 36.2 32.7 28.4 26.6
E25-Marine Drive A259 35.5 31.7 27.2 27.5




 

The figures indicate that there has been a steady and gradual reduction in NO2 pollutants between 2010 and 2021. It should be noted that the Experimental Traffic Order (ETO) was put in place in October 2019. The purpose  of the ETO being to allow north flowing traffic to flow freely with the aim of reducing the build up of fumes.
 
An additional factor which will have impacted on NO2 is that traffic flow was less in March/April 2020 due to the 'stay at home and stop non essential travel' Government directive.
 
There are probably several other powerful reasons for this steady and gradual reduction including:
 

• A cleaner bus fleet.
• The increase in the number of ultra low and zero exhaust vehicles.
• The increasing number of vehicles with automatic engine switch off while stationary.
• Drivers switching off their engines while stationary.
• New signage encouraging HGVs to avoid Rottingdean

If you have a question relating to this data then please address them to graham.sheppard@rottingdean-pc.gov.uk  Please understand that if we are unable to answer you directly then we will forward your question to BHCC.

The High Street

i) The Upper High Street 

Context

        Rottingdean High Street (B2123) is an important trunk road linking the A27 through Woodingdean to the A259 coast road.

        The High Street has a good variety of retail outlets including a Green Grocer/Delicatessen,Butcher, Bakers, Coffee shops, Budgens, two pubs, dress shop, Financial Advisors and hairdressers. With no on-street parking, customers need to use the pavements to access the shops and residents regularly use this route to get to the lower High St and A259 main bus stops. The High St  was never designed for the levels of traffic of the modern day. The road is very narrow in places, footpaths are narrow and at peak times traffic build-up leads to a deterioration of air quality in the vicinity.

        Rottingdean High St is a designated an AQMA by BHCC for the reasons above. Steps have been taken to reduce pollution by redirecting heavy vehicles from Woodingdean down Wilson Avenue and by improving traffic flow in both directions at the High St bottleneck where two large vehicles cannot pass due to an exclusion box. Air Quality has improved to below legal limits.

Rottingdean Residents' Issues

The following issues are regularly raised with Ward Councillors,  at Parish Council meetings and through Social media:

•           Vehicles ignoring the exclusion box resulting in cars mounting the pavement at the bottleneck  or a traffic jam resulting in pollution build up. The yellow box was repainted less than a year ago and has faded already. There is no enforcement camera.
•          The High St is a Conservation Area with red brick paving. Over many years it has become uneven and is slippery in many places leading to a number of injuries. The edging bricks forming the kerbs are badly damaged or have sunk below the level of the road. This results in easy mounting of the pavement for cars but also pedestrians get soaked by passing cars where puddles form.
•         There is no pedestrian protection at the narrow points of the road where cars tend to mount the pavement.
•          The condition of the High St road surface is poor.
•          Pedestrians feel unsafe using the High St for the reasons above plus the perceived speed of vehicles. There are limited 20mph signs in this area and those on the road have virtually disappeared.
•      There are no speed limiting devices.

Overall Pedestrians avoid using the High St unless they have to. This is not good for the local businesses nor good for encouraging people to walk more and use public transport.

Upgrade Proposal

Following a number of meetings with Ward Councillors and senior engineers from BHCC the preferred option agreed for upgrading the High Street involves replacing the kerbing on the eastern footway, replacing the paving with alternative blocks and resurfacing the carriageway. The estimated cost for this scope is £260,623.88 including contingency of 30% (£200,479.91 the actual estimated cost). The Section 106 funding available is £120k and thus on a 50:50 split on the balance RPC would be expected to fund approx. £70k. In parallel with this work BHCC have, at their cost, initiated a Traffic Management Study for Rottingdean with an aim to identifying alternative road layouts for the village should that be deemed reasonable. This study will conclude in January and the findings will be integrated into the ‘preferred option’ described above. Once this integration has been concluded a further update will be made to the estimated cost. The estimate will then be issued to the BHCC preferred supplier list who will further enhance the cost estimate by costing in the practicalities of delivery. It is hoped that work will commence in the first quarter of 2026. 

The Parish Council has decided to pause work on proposals to re-develop the Lower High Street because of the more pressing priorites . This will allow the Council to focus on the development  of St Aubyns Field, Chapel and Pavilion and continue work on the upgrade of the upper High Street.