Three Bridges Station Improvement Scheme — request to reconsider before construction starts
After eight years, still a budget compromise that discounts eastbound users.
The Three Bridges station upgrade is a real, needed scheme — better pedestrian, cycle and bus access, a modern forecourt. It also came with an answer to a question that's sat unresolved for eight years: anyone who needs to leave the station by car or taxi, heading east, has been offered two detours that add up to a mile, cross extra sets of lights, and loop back through Three Bridges before going anywhere. This site exists to show what that alternative actually costs the people who have to use it.
What this site is
Not a campaign against the scheme.
Three Bridges Watch isn't opposed to this project. The station needs investment — better pedestrian, cycle and bus access, a forecourt that isn't chaotic at peak times are all worth having. The mission here is narrower and more constructive: support sensible, budget-appropriate development that works for everyone who uses the station — on foot, by bike, by bus, by car or by taxi — and for the environment around it. That includes wanting to see the £7.97m budget spent well, on a scheme that solves the access problems it set out to solve, not just the ones that were cheapest to fix.
This site won't change the council's plans on its own, and it doesn't claim to. What it can do is put the full record in one place — gathered from the council's own documents, meetings and correspondence — and invite anyone else affected to add to it: residents, councillors, the people who organised earlier petitions.
The alternative
An answer exists. It isn't a good one.
The scheme removes the direct right-hand turn out of the station onto Haslett Avenue East — the only straight route for anyone driving, or taking a taxi, to Maidenbower, Pound Hill, Worth, Forge Wood or Copthorne. That change was first raised with the council in February 2018. In its place, two routes are offered: both add roughly 0.8 to 1.2 miles round trip, cross several extra sets of lights, and both loop back through Three Bridges before heading anywhere else.
The one piece of vehicle mitigation ever proposed for the east side — a small drop-off at a new Station Hill entrance — was dropped years ago on cost grounds. What's being built there is pedestrian, cycle and bus access only, at a junction with limited sightlines.
In the council's own words
On the record, not from outside
Every quote below comes from a councillor speaking at a public meeting.
"If we could have found a right-turn option that would work, believe me we would have done it."
Peter Smith
Cabinet Member for Planning
Full Council, 2020
"An insurmountable issue... someone is going to have to lose out on it, which is sad."
Bob Burgess
Councillor for Three Bridges
Full Council, 2020
"Good transport planning should improve access for everybody, not simply replace one set of problems with another."
Kim Jaggard
Councillor for Maidenbower
Full Council, 15 July 2026
Get involved
This is meant to be added to
Three Bridges Watch works best as a shared record, not a one-person case. A few ways to take part:
Share your story
If the change to eastbound access affects your journey, your business or your daily routine, your account belongs here alongside the documentary evidence.
hello@threebridgeswatch.co.uk →If you're a councillor
Several councillors have already raised these concerns on the record. If you'd like to contribute directly, or correct anything here, get in touch.
hello@threebridgeswatch.co.uk →Track the FOI request
An EIR/FOI request covering cost breakdown, funding conditions and missing meeting recordings is open with the council, reference FOI862627601.
Response due ~1 September 2026