Improving pedestrian-crossings across the railway is an important action for the Hove Station Gateway Community Hub set out in Neighbourhood Part 2 and has been carried through into the BHCC Master Plan.
The Hove Station Area Improvement Group prepared a leaflet which set out the community’s request for the Council to take urgent action to improve the cleaning of the bridge, implement short term measures to upgrade its appearance and to decide between the alternatives of major refurbishment or replacement. Including the provision of lifts. It also asked the Council to secure funding from a combination of public sector resources and developer contributions from the major redevelopment projects now in the pipeline in the local area.
The footbridge improvement petition provides clear evidence of the residents’ support for the Forum’s campaign for the improvement of the bridge and for it to be included in the Neighbourhood Plan’s priorities for the investment of some of the developer contributions which would eventually be generated by the regeneration of DA6. It also heightened public awareness of the need to improve the access to the station via the footbridge and the pedestrian hostile tunnel route.