Campaigners opposed to a multi-million pound bypass scheme gathered to challenge the main political parties to join them in their fight.

The directors of Britain's leading environmental pressure groups visited the route of the proposed £240 million twin Hastings and Bexhill bypasses yesterday.

The heads of the Council for the Protection of Rural England (CPRE), Friends of the Earth, Greenpeace, the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds (RSPB) and wildlife trusts challenged the political parties which support the roads.

The scheme includes western and eastern bypasses, an upgrade and electrification of the Ashford to Hastings railway line, establishment of a Bexhill to Ore line and the building of a Glyne Gap station serving Ravenside Retail Park in Bexhill.

It is seen by the South-East England Regional Assembly, businesses and authorities in Sussex as vital to open up the area to sorely-needed investment and ease congestion.

Consultation surveys have shown up to 80 per cent support. But there remains a vocal green lobby which predicts devastation to the environment around the High Weald Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty (AONB).

The newly-formed Hastings Alliance, an umbrella group representing leading wildlife and environmental groups with a combined membership of 1.8 million, galvanised its opposition yesterday.

Kate Parminter, director of the CPRE, said: "Building these bypasses would lead to unacceptable damage to the High Weald AONB, tranquil countryside which only last year the Government said should have equivalent protection to national parks.

"The roads would sever woodland and historic landscapes, while the 9m embankment through the Doleham Ditch Valley would destroy its rural character.

"These schemes would also encourage a string of other damaging new roads along the South Coast and provide no guarantee of regeneration for Hastings."

The RSPB said the roads would damage three of Britain's top wildlife sites, Pevensey Levels, Combe Haven and Marline valley Woods, and the High Weald AONB.

Graham Wynne, chief executive of the RSPB, said: "This proposal is a disaster for wildlife. The decision will be an early test of the new Government's commitment to protecting Sites of Special Scientific Interest (SSSIs), through the recently-introduced Countryside and Rights of Way Act.

"The three SSSIs the road will damage include wetland pastures, reedbed and woodland, supporting a rich diversity of plants, animals and birds, such as lapwings and golden plovers.

"We should be increasing the area of important wildlife habitat, not damaging what little we have left."

The concerns have held little sway with parties in the area who say Hastings and Bexhill will never reach their full potential unless access to the areas is improved.

Hastings and Rye's Labour candidate Michael Foster, who was elected in 1997, reckons the north Bexhill Business Park would create more than 2,800 jobs, employment which will be sorely needed as a result of increased building obligations.

Charles Secrett, executive director of Friends of the Earth, said: "The main political parties claim to be green but they all fail this acid test of their commitment. If they meant what they said, they would not build the Hastings bypasses and other damaging roads.

"This is another Newbury fiasco in the making."

Mr Foster's Tory challenger, Mark Coote, said he was sensitive to the concerns of the green lobby but he had not been convinced by any alternative to the scheme.

He said: "All the local businesses that I speak to, particularly in St Leonards, have made the point that they are being held back from expanding because of poor transport links."

But Stephen Tindale, executive director of Greenpeace, said: "New roads do nothing to solve transport problems - they just create more traffic, more pollution, more climate change, more flooding."

John Stewart, chairman of Transport 2000, said: "These roads will not sort out Hastings traffic problems. What is needed is a strategy to improve public transport in the town."

Teacher Gillian Bargery, who stands as an anti-bypass independent candidate next Thursday, said the millions earmarked for the scheme would be better spent developing local transport and regeneration initiatives to raise Hastings above the 28th most deprived area in Britain that it occupies.

Mrs Bargery admits she does not expect to win the seat but says her involvement will be crucial in the re-election of Mr Foster, who takes on Mr Coote with a slender 2,600 majority.

She said: "Instead of adopting this discredited solution to our problems, we should pursue a sustainable development of our area by drawing on local resources such as our artistic community and tradition and our exceptional countryside and history."

Liberal Democrat hopeful Graem Peters said residents in Hastings, particularly in Bexhill Road, had been forced to put up with traffic pollution through having a trunk road pass by their homes for too long.

He said: "Hastings needs this. The people of the town have been waiting for this for a long time and after consultation which shows full support for it, they should get it."

June 2, 2001