National Highways say further work is needed by developers before it will give its approval to the Winchelsea Road development in Rye, which features a new Aldi supermarket.
In a significant intervention, revealed the day before public consultation closed on Friday, August 9 the agency recommends delaying any planning decision until November 2 to allow the developers time to improve their modelling on access to the site. It has also firmly rejected their traffic and parking projections. The plans for the development, which also includes homes and residential housing, are due to be discussed by Rother District Council’s planning committee on Thursday, September 5.
National Highways is responsible for the traffic and maintenance on the A259. In its online submission to Rother District Council’s planning portal, which was uploaded on Thursday, August 8 the agency says: “National Highways does not consent to the alteration of the access on to the A259 trunk road at this time.”
The agency makes it clear that it will recommend refusing planning permission until its concerns about access to the site are answered. “The design of the proposed site access junction requires a departure from standard which is being progressed by the applicant with National Highways. As of 19 July 2024, National Highways submitted a report to the applicant indicating further work is required to progress the application.”
Data on vehicle turning movements relating to the A259 will now need to be amended in the traffic assessment; the prediction of vehicle trips re-modelled; traffic flows clarified and the traffic from other building developments taken into consideration — because “cumulatively [it] could have a material impact” on the road network.
In addition, National Highways rejected the methodology used by highway planning specialist Connect Consultants to calculate car parking use at the new Aldi, saying that it didn’t reflect periods of peak demand. The supermarket would have 107 parking spaces. Parking assumptions for the proposed 44-apartment retirement home will also need to be revised.
It’s understood that Aldi was hoping to open the new food store next year, if planning permission is granted.
It’s now known that the proposed access junction to the site will be a “simple priority junction” similar to the current arrangement, although the project proponents hope to improve visibility splays. Kerbs leading from the site access to Winchelsea Road will be adjusted to give a “bellmouth” connection and there will be a “crossing point” over the main road north of the access junction, comprising dropped kerbs and tactile paving.
Other access options such as a mini-roundabout, a “ghost island” priority junction and a traffic signal-controlled junction were rejected because of the need to acquire land, which would have made the cost prohibitive.
The submission also reveals the agency has been discussing the plans with the developer for almost four years. “National Highways provided pre-application advice in relation to an initial scoping note in November 2020. Further comments were then provided in respect of an updated scoping note in June 2021.”
A spokesperson for Aldi confirmed the plans include a replacement T-junction. “The layout and detail of the junction design has been the subject of discussions over the past year with National Highways, who are responsible for the A259 Winchelsea Road, and the team are working with them to design a suitable junction, taking into account the existing constraints of the site. Through the consultation process, the team are liaising with both National Highways and East Sussex County Highways to respond to any matters that arise while both highway authorities review the technical submissions.”
Image Credits: Harris Partnership , Harris .
Four years in discussion and Highways leave it to one day before commenting closes to come up with a major objection ! Neither Highways nor the architects have done their job here – very disappointing
Is it a major objection? Or is it saying the architect and their consultants haven’t done the work they needed to do? That’s my reading of it. And if they’ve been talking for four years, both sides are presumably clear on the principle of the proposal. It sounds like it’s the detail that’s lacking. Personally speaking, whilst I have no problem whatsoever with the proposal in theory, the practicality in terms of traffic does concern me. It has to be worth taking the time to get this right.
I agree but if they can’t get it right between them after four years of talking I don’t hold out much hope and why leave it to the 11th hour thus delaying the process. Ok perhaps it’s not major to stop an eventual approval but as we saw before, delays can result in the proposal being withdrawn altogether.
Aldi wasn’t alone in hoping for an opening next year!
So the architect hasn’t listened to the consultation advice for the past FOUR years, or the Agency keeps moving the goalposts. Which is it?
I cannot believe Aldi could seriously make the development work with a peak of 57 cars an hour.
not 57 extra cars (Aldi consultant estimate)… it can be up to 300 extra cars in peak times. Hence National Highways’ concern.
I don’t know where you got the 300 car figure from. It does not appear
in National Highways’ comment on Connect Consultants’ transport assessment. Please let us know, or we’ll conclude that you just made up this figure. Remember that the Rye population is about 4,500, perhaps 1,800 families — so 300 cars an hour visiting Aldi would be an enormous number. NH does say, however, that the consultants failed to take peak numbers into account. It appears that the consultants will need to recalculate their figures and answer the questions posed by National Highways. The likeliest outcome is a delay of a couple of months to the decision on planning permission.
Edward: The number (up to 300 per hour) uses an algorithm with number of parking spaces X 40-90 mins per car parked (the average Aldi assume people use the parking to shop). I used to analyse transport trends and used an algorithm for this. It builds in the fact there are peak / pinch times of day for demand. Aldi will only build stores with 15k plus people – and therefore you are right- Rye has too small a population, and the store will need to attract significant amounts of customers from outside the area to meet their profit numbers. Their own transport consultants have assumed most consumers will be driving by the store anyway – they call this “secondary traffic”. But this is significantly understating the amount of traffic – because Aldi admit they need cars from outside Rye to make the demand big enough for them to build an Aldi here in Rye. I should think that is why National Highways are asking for the calculations and plans to be re-assessed.
Would this be the same ‘National Highways’ that have sat back for years and watched the daily traffic chaos that besets South Undercliff (A259)? Where there is all day free parking for some (those that choose to ignore the regulations), including the entitlement to park up on pavements forcing pedestrians (including parents with pushchair bound children) into the traffic flow.
Hypocrisy of Biblical proportions comes to mind.
Cliff, well said. I thought I was the only one person who had noticed the parking in South Undercliff!!
Steve, without straying too far from the Aldi/traffic issue topic here, I noted on the Rye Facebook page a couple of days back there was much gnashing of teeth, tearing of hair and howls of despair on account of the South Undercliff parking problem. I do believe the issue has been discussed in this publication before. Perhaps it’s time to raise the subject again under another banner?
Wasn’t that allowed for traffic calming purposes. A very poor excuse from years ago.
While Rye really, desperately, needs Supermarket competition, I have been wondering how cars coming from the roundabout and waiting to turn right to the proposed Aldi would not cause complete gridlock of the roundabout on busy days?
Would be chaos on the road. I want the Aldi but how is it possible with a giveway junction….. Would cause mass gridlock.
The Highways Agency is absolutely right to point out that the traffic congestion could be a disaster for the whole town, it is simply the wrong place, one suggestion would be Rye Harbour Road with acres of space, no through traffic to anywhere and for those who need the bus, a lot of empty seats on the 313!
Surely the real surprise is the one business that will be most seriously affected, Jempsons, failed to respond at all within the time limit for consultation, even though the plans have been known for months. Only a letter a week after the closing date, asking for more time and claiming that damage to their shop will result in a loss of business to the whole town (!) seems to be too little and too late. However, if the application is not to be considered next month due to the Highways Authority’s objection, they may, luckily, have been given a reprieve
National Highways did not say that traffic congestion would be a ‘disaster for the whole town’. It merely pointed out that some of the traffic, turning and parking assumptions – and associated modelling – by the highway consultants was inaccurate and needed to be recalculated. Rye Harbour Road would have its own pros and cons. The land there is largely zoned for industrial use, shoppers would need vehicles to access the site, and so on. Jempson’s and Morrisons’ belated ‘holding objection’ to Aldi’s project, sent to RDC, is a last-ditch effort to preserve a decades-old supermarket monopoly which has obliged townspeople to pay very high grocery prices owing to a lack of competition. To suggest that Aldi will have an adverse universal impact on Rye town centre and produce a loss of trade there is patently incorrect. The only business that will suffer is Jempson’s because it will be unable to compete with Aldi. It’s fair competition, pure and simple.
Apart from the junction layout yet to be resolved, one might ask as to what the aforementioned parking plans are for the carpark .( i.e. Cost ,duration of stay,method of payment and of course RINGO maybe ,Will it be free for 1 hour ,2 hours .
The towns meter system is reasonably good as you have a maximum of 2 hours ,alas though they now have removed some of the Meters ,it can mean quite a walk to the nearest one now and would be difficult for any one with mobility problems ,(5-10 minutes at least to reach the relevant meter.) ARE the Meters that have been removed just being fixed or is it a permanent
removal.This may be a wait and see moment I think.
Has there been any prior notice been given about this change.
I’d go for a build near the rugby club either on the left or right leaving Rye. Plenty room for anything you might want. We used to joke about a cinema complex, a KFC and a Burger King pushing for a build there. Alas as with the ring road nothing ever seems to happen.
We are in the age of technology. Aldi already has a UK app and the number of free parking spaces could automatically be displayed on the app in real time. On the roads leading to the store a Matrix led display could show the occupancy rate in time for people to react to arrange their plans accordingly.
Do we really want more signs or matrix signs on one of the principal access routes into our lovely antient town? Would they be necessary? The Aldi at Ore has a very modest car park, which I have seen congested, nearly full, and it is close to a major junction on the A259. Does that cause gridlock? I haven’t seen it cause problems but we don’t go that way very often. That’s why I ask the question.
Aldi at Ore and Behill have filter lanes which allow traffic waiting to enter the car park to avoid blocking the road, The problem with Winchelsea Road is it is simply too narrow to allow a filter and every car wanting to turn right has the potential to block the road back to the Kettle O Fish roundabout, Aldi expect up to 270 vehicles an hour on Saturdays, it will be a nightmare!