What’s one thing that would instantly improve your city?
One thing would instantly improve my town: stop treating it as a route to pass through to get somewhere else.
I would divert through traffic — east to west and north to south — away from Lewes, then use the space and freedom that creates to build an integrated local transport network.
Lewes sits within a string of towns that ought to function far more effectively together: Brighton, Lewes, Newhaven and Seaford, Uckfield, even to Burgess Hill, Haywards Heath and Eastbourne. I would like to see fast, frequent public transport linking them — rail where we already have it, rapid transit where we do not, and buses, walking and cycling designed as parts of the same system rather than separate afterthoughts.
The difference in Lewes itself would be immediate. Fewer vehicles passing through and chocking narrow roads. Quieter and safer streets. Cleaner air. More space for people walking and cycling. A town centre that feels like a place rather than a traffic corridor.
And the wider gain would be even greater: you could move around this part of Sussex without assuming that every journey begins with getting into a car.
That would change the town — and its relationship with the towns around it — more than almost anything else I can think of.
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