Landscapes in the SE of England

I was living in Sussex a few moons ago and I was always slightly disorientated. Partly because the roads needed to meanander around waterways, topography etc but also because the road corridor in the area was planted with exactly the same plantings over and over again.

The design rationale appeared to me to be ‘screen the road from everyone and lets not think how we are going to acheive this screen. Roll out the next 5 miles of woodland hedge ‘. 

Many town bypasses appeared the same as well  – there is practically no difference in the landscaping between the bypass of  East Grinstead, a town in Sussex, and the bypass to the town outside of the Rodings in Essex. Yet one is north of London and the other is south. Does this seem odd to anyone else?

Does this matter? Well yes because it could be so much better without much extra budget. The landscaping could be more interesting, varied and actually become part of the navigational structure  for the road user.

Perhaps the Highway Agency has never been called to defend their design approach.  Is the Highway Agency aware of what is happening in other parts of the world?