Management Of 14-Mile "Cuckoo Trail" in East Sussex To Change

Monday, 13 July 2020 22:17

By Huw Oxburgh, Local Democracy Reporter

The Cuckoo Trail at Horam (Picture: Nick MacNeill / Creative Commons)

The way the Cuckoo Trail is managed and maintained is set for changes, as part of a new agreement between East Sussex County Council and Wealden District Council.

Jointly owned by the two authorities, in previous years, East Sussex County Council has taken sole responsibility for maintaining the trail, with Wealden paying £25,000 a year towards this cost.

But the councils are in the process of signing off on a new management agreement which sees each authority take responsibility for maintaining only what it owns.

Wealden owns around 80 per cent of the 14-mile trail, with the remaining 20 per cent owned by the county council.

The county council says these changes will free up its resources for the maintenance of around 2,000 miles of Public Rights of Way in East Sussex.

Despite this, East Sussex County Council would continue to handle all public enquiries related to the trail, with Wealden District Council paying the upper tier authority £10,000 a year for this service.

The principles of the agreement are set to be discussed by Cllr Claire Dowling, the county council’s lead member for transport and environment, at a meeting next Monday (July 20).

According to the councils the changes were initially to be discussed earlier this year, but were deferred in light of the coronavirus crisis. However, both councils have been operating to the principles of the agreement since 1 April 2020.

The "Cuckoo Trail" is a fourteen-mile cycleway and footpath through the East Sussex countryside, running from Hampden Park near Eastbourne to Heathfield via the towns of Polegate and Hailsham, together with villages such as Hellingly and Horam.

It largely follows the route of the "Cuckoo Line", the disused former railway route connecting Polegate and Eridge stations and, therefore, part of the the old direct route between Eastbourne to London.

Its name is said to come from a Heathfield tradition that the "first cuckoo in spring" was heard at the annual Heathfield Fair.

In 1968, the broad reduction in Britain's railways known as the "Beeching Cuts" ended its days of service.