Meridian East Sussex News

The A26 is partially blocked at Poundgate due to accident, a 4x4 and a lorry involved at Chillies Lane (The Crow And Gate Pub). Just outside of Crowborough. Traffic is taking it in turns to get past.

• UK
• Travel
• East Sussex

A potentially deadly sea creature has gone on display at an Aquarium in East Sussex. The stonefish was handed in to a pet shop in Portsmouth before being given to the Blue Reef Aquarium in Hastings

• UK
• fish
• East Sussex

Taxpayers have been left with a bill of almost 690,000 for evicting activists and securing the site of a controversial road building project in East Sussex.

Campaigners against the Hastings to Bexhill link road set up camps, locked themselves in tunnels and stationed themselves up trees.

The protest, dubbed "the second Battle of Hastings", led to the arrest of 28 people, amid fears the £93 million road would lead to more pollution and damage the environment.

East Sussex County Council said the bill for removing the protesters and securing the site in the threatened Combe Haven Valley, near Crowhurst, had been "an unnecessary additional cost".

It said the bill is on top of the £4.5 million already built up from judicial delays into the road scheme, which aims to regenerate one of the poorest economies in the South East.

A county council spokesman said: "To secure the site and remove protesters from trees and tunnels has required highly-trained specialist staff.

"This is a significant sum but this was a significant protest. To remove safely people who have locked themselves in tunnels and to trees requires very specific skills and expertise.

"We will continue to work with security and the police, where appropriate, to ensure any preparatory works can continue to be carried out safely."

• UK
• Hasting Bexhill link road
• eviction

One lane blocked and slow traffic due to accident involving four vehicles on A27 Eastbound at Coldean Lane / Carden Avenue / Ditchling Road. Lane two blocked.

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• Travel
• East Sussex

League tables published today reveal that some of the Government's flagship academies are among the worst performing schools in the region. Kent's grammars are doing well but the overall performance of Sussex schools is below par.

David Johns reports, talking to head teachers Cassie Ellins at Marlowe Academy, Julie Derrick at Invicta Grammar, and Jules White at Tanbridge House.

• Education
• Kent
• East Sussex

David Johns reports on the day's snowfalls across the south-east and looks ahead to how Kent County Council's gritting team is getting ready for any further falls overnight, with Carol Valentine from KCC.

• UK
• Kent
• East Sussex

DEFRA have confirmed that a case of ash dieback has been found in a woodland in East Sussex.

It was discovered as part of an urgent survey to find traces of the disease in woods and forests

It means that the county becomes the eleventh in England where Chalara has been found. Others include Essex, Kent, West Sussex and Berkshire.

Chalara is likely to have been in England for at least two years but has only recently been discovered in forests and woodland as a result of the intensive survey carried out of sites across the UK where ash trees are known to be present.

Martin Ward, DEFRA Chief Plant Health Officer, said: “Although the rate at which we are discovering new areas infected with Chalara is slowing, there are still results coming through from our surveying exercise earlier this month and reports from landowners and the public.

"The better informed we are, the more effective we can be in our work to contain the spread and impact of this disease.”

The ash tree is a native British species of tree, providing around five percent of all woodland cover. Chalara is a serious disease that has affected a high proportion of ash trees in northern Europe and which was confirmed as present in nursery stock in the UK in March.

• UK
• ash
• East Sussex

A further case of the tree disease, ash dieback, has been confirmed in woodland in East Sussex.

Following an ugent survey to find the disease in woods and forests, East Sussex is the eleventh county in England where Chalara has been discovered.

• UK
• ash
• East Sussex