Viva Lewes Issue 117 June 2016

SUSTAINABLE TRANSPORT
Chris Smith
Lewes Travel Log man
Lewes Travel Log is a website and newsletter
which I started to encourage people living in or near
Lewes to use sustainable travel – ie walking, cycling
and getting the bus or train – instead of driving
or flying. I let readers know about how to get the
cheapest tickets on offer, about useful cycle and
walking routes, and about campaigns against bodies
and people that are trying to make sustainable travel
more difficult or expensive.
There were two things that sparked it off. I was
a Green and I was banned from asking questions in
the Christmas quiz about buses – ie what number
bus takes you from Lewes to Haywards Heath – because
no-one knew the answers. And I had friends
in St Swithun’s Terrace who, when I suggested they
might take a bus from the High Street instead of
using their car, asked me how they would go about
doing that. I thought it was time for action. This was
about 10-12 years ago.
I’m not anti-car. My partner and I own one; I realise
that the way things are set up it’s difficult to
travel sustainably all of the time. Try getting to
Hurstpierpoint, for example (where my mother was
in a nursing home). But I realise that East Sussex has
the highest rate of car ownership per capita in the
country, and we need to try to do something about
that because traffic is bad enough as it is, and the
time will come when the whole area is completely
choked up.
I make it my mission to let people know the
cheapest public transport tickets they can buy.
For example, as of last month Lewes is no longer
in the Brighton City zone, as far as the bus companies
are concerned, which means a use-it-all-day
City Saver, bought on the bus, will now set you back
£6.50 instead of £4.70. Unless you buy a scratch-off
ticket in Tourist Information or Martins Newsagent,
that is, in which case it will cost you £4.90.
I’m a keen walker. On my website I have outlined
over 40 walks, all of which start and end in Lewes or
somewhere connected to Lewes by public transport.
Some of them are themed: there’s an Eric Ravilious
one, for example, and another one about paths in
the Firle Estate which have been obscured or even
ploughed over.
Another battle is the Gatwick extension plan.
I’m against it. I believe if it goes ahead it will be
inevitable that the A23 is turned into a motorway
all the way from Beddingham to Polegate. Our MP
Maria Caulfield refuses to come down on one side
or the other, I suspect because she will annoy potential
voters whichever way she goes.
The newsletter allows me to release my inner
nerd, but it has attracted over 300 subscribers, and a
lot of them forward it on as well. You can subscribe
to it for free via travelloglewes.co.uk. As told to AL
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