Part removal of Brighton A259 seafront cycle lane cost £3,000

Brighton and Hove City Council gave the figure for the work between the Aquarium roundabout and West Street in Brighton last week.

A spokesman said was not possible to estimate how much that part of the lane cost to install, however the whole A259 lane was priced at £105,000.

At about 10pm last Wednesday, workers began to take away the bollards from the A259 lane – days after it officially opened.

It came after Brighton and Hove Bus Company voiced its concerns about bus journey times and congestion.

The council’s lead member for transport Pete West said: “Congestion on this stretch has had a knock-on for major bus routes and delays to bus journey times – that is unacceptable.

“Sadly, attempted changes to adjust traffic light timings have not provided the answers needed as there is still insufficient capacity for the volume of traffic heading towards West Street.”

The radical changes to the seafront road’s layout were agreed at a June 23 meeting and the lanes were officially opening two weeks ago.

After opening, motorists, buses and ambulances battled “gridlock” with vehicles at a near standstill during peak hours.

Brighton and Hove Buses was forced to divert services, the AA warned drivers of delays on all approaches to the Aquarium roundabout and video appeared to show an ambulance struggling through traffic.

At the time, the council said it was aware of congestion along sections of the A23 and A259 and urged motorists “to consider whether they could make their journey in a different way”.

The rest of the cycle lane will remain and a bid has been submitted to the government to extend to the city’s western boundary.

Conservative transport spokesman Lee Wares objected to the plans at the time.

Speaking after the removal, he said: “Recently Cllr West said ‘give them a chance’, well that has happened and it has gone disastrously wrong.

“Now every implemented scheme should be suspended and all those proposed should be stopped until their impact has been adequately assessed.”