It’s all change at the top of the Local Enterprise Partnerships (LEP) in Sussex.  In the South East LEP, there appears to be some bad blood between the Board and Peter Jones (former leader of East Sussex County Council and supporter of the Bexhill Hastings Link Road and various associated roads and failed business parks).  In the summer, he reported to Government that he had been sacked after the South East LEP failed to reappoint him as chair.

To some extent this might be linked to the proposal to split the South East LEP into smaller and more manageable areas.  However, it would seem that there is more to it than that.  Local campaigners are hopeful that the ‘sacking’ of  Peter Jones will lead to the LEP appointing a chair with more vision who can deliver better public transport alongside real and sustainable jobs in East Sussex.

Less dramatically, Coast to Capital has just announced that Jonathan Sharrock will succeed Ron Crank as its new chief executive in January 2016, when Ron Crank is due to retire.  Jonathan Sharrock comes from the Department for Transport where he has spent the last three years developing the HS2 high speed rail project.

Previously responsible he was responsible for overseeing Government transport interests for the 2012 Olympics and also has significant experience working with the aviation industry. Whether he has the experience and knowledge to understand that large scale road building isn’t the answer to issues on the south coast and that instead we need integrated transport solutions remains to be seen.

LEPs are important as they are increasingly taking responsibility for spending public money on local infrastructure, much of that being transport and roads.  While they contain some council representation, they are dominated by business representatives and are not democratically accountable.