Please Reopen Heathfield Tunnel on the Cuckoo Trail

Heathfield Tunnel on the Cuckoo Trail has been closed for several years, with no indication by Wealden District Council as to exactly why it has been closed and what the long-term plans for it are.

I sent a Freedom of Information Act request to Wealden District Council asking why Heathfield Tunnel is closed and have received a reply. In their reply they state that they cannot tell me who made the decision, as they did not record this information, and that it was closed due to unspecified incidents and the dangerous condition of the lighting system.

Heathfield Tunnel was the only publicly accessible former railway tunnel in East Sussex and at no point have Wealden District Council stated this was a funding issue; it appears to have been an arbitrary decision.

The tunnel and Millennium Green were opened, through public funding and grants (the tunnel had work costing £258,000 in 1997, or £450,000 today) and it seems a shame this money has now been wasted, with the gates permanently closed.

In Bath a cycleway has been opened recently, which takes in two tunnels, one of which is a mile long, so quite why Wealden District Council are unable to manage this tunnel, I don't know. It seems to be an inconvenience they don't wish to deal with, rather than a properly made and recorded decision.

Please show your support by liking this video, so that we can approach the council and show our support for the tunnel being reopened.