Business owners in East Sussex have slammed a road improvement scheme as inadequate.

The Federation of Small Businesses said the A21 between Hastings and the Pembury bypass needed to be dual carriageway to cope with expected amounts of traffic.

Doug Thorogood, Hastings branch chairman and spokesman for East Sussex on transport, said: "No business owner in their right mind will come anywhere near Hastings until we have got it.

"How do the Government and Hastings Borough Council expect to regenerate the town when virtually daily the A21 is closed or obstructed by some form of accident or roadworks?

"It looks to me that less than three per cent of the £240 million to improve the access into Hastings will in fact be spent on the A21 south of the Pembury bypass.

"That is not good enough. All this will do is move the accident blackspots and pinch-points from one place to another."