1The problem

Start with who actually lives here. In the 2021 census, 29.2% of Hastings households had no car or van at all, against 23.5% for England ¹. More of us walk to work than the national average — 11.0% against 7.6% — while cycling, at 1.3%, sits below it ²; the census itself was taken during pandemic restrictions, so treat the exact travel splits with care, but the shape is clear. This is a walking town by both need and habit.

The street space tells a different story. The county's own walking and cycling plan describes the A259 through Hastings as a source of "severance on the coastal route", with limited crossing points and high traffic flows cutting the town off from its own seafront ³. Away from the front, footways carry the space left over once traffic and parking have taken theirs.

And the clearest test case is already documented. In 2021 East Sussex County Council trialled School Streets — roads outside schools closed to motor traffic for the school run, open as ever to anyone walking, wheeling or cycling — at six schools, two of them in Hastings: Ark Blacklands Primary Academy and All Saints CofE Junior Academy ⁴. The council's evaluation found more active travel at every school, less traffic, and parents who felt their children were safer ⁵. Three schemes were then made permanent: in Lewes, Bexhill and Eastbourne ⁵. None in Hastings.

2The evidence

School Streets are about as well-evidenced as small traffic schemes get. The first large national study — led by the University of Cambridge's MRC Epidemiology Unit, covering schemes at around 500 English primary schools — found they raise active travel to school by 6% on average and up to 40% at some schools, while cutting car-only journeys by about 5% ⁶. In London, air-quality sensors outside 18 primary schools measured nitrogen dioxide down by up to 23% at morning drop-off, and 81% of parents supported the schemes ⁷.

East Sussex's own results point the same way. After its three permanent schemes went in, the county reported a 10% increase in children travelling actively to school ⁸. Under the experimental order in Lewes, vehicle movements in the affected streets halved, and public support in consultation ran at 77–83% ⁵.

Money is not the blocker it once was. Around £20m of active travel capital has come to East Sussex over the last five years, and 15 of the walking-and-cycling plan's 20 priority schemes are delivered or in development ⁸. The county's active travel allocation for 2025/26 alone is £1,110,557 ⁹. Meanwhile the £10.15m town-centre public realm scheme — wider footways on Havelock Road, a segregated cycle lane from the station to the sea, real tree planting — is at final design, with construction due in 2026 ^{10 11}. The direction is agreed. The gap is that the school-gate wins keep landing in other towns.

Hastings has done this kind of thing before, permanently, and liked it: George Street in the Old Town was pedestrianised in 1987 and is now one of the most-loved streets in town ¹².

3The proposal

Our ask is specific and cheap by highways standards. East Sussex County Council should designate at least two permanent School Streets in Hastings in the next round of schemes, starting from the two schools that already proved the model here in 2021, and should say so in the revised walking and cycling plan due through 2026 ⁸. The trial infrastructure is signs, planters and a traffic order, not civil engineering; the county's own evaluation framework already exists ⁵.

Second, deliver the town-centre public realm scheme on schedule — construction in 2026, completion 2027, as published ¹⁰ — and treat its walking counts as the baseline for the next scheme rather than the finish line.

Third, aim the pressure at the right desk. Roads, pavements, cycleways and street trees on highway land are East Sussex County Council's responsibility, not the borough's ^{13 14}. Writing to Hastings Borough Council about a crossing is a letter to the wrong building. Our toolkits name the decision-maker on every ask.

4The honest counterarguments

5What you can do today

If your child's school run feels dangerous: tell the school and ask whether they'd host a School Street — East Sussex's trial started with willing schools ⁴. Then tell the county council's transport team the same thing, in your own words.

When the revised walking and cycling plan consults (the review is running through 2026 ⁸), respond. Our consultation toolkit will be ready when it opens.

Join the people already on this: Hastings Urban Bikes has campaigned on walking and cycling here since 2006, and Transport Futures East Sussex works the bus and rail side. Both are on our action page.