A meeting of the A27 Working party was held on Thursday September 15th chaired by Councillor Tom Wye and attended by Sir Peter Bottomley and me, local councillors, and representatives from local businesses and residents’ groups. It was particularly important to dispel a lot of misinformation that had been circulating since a new ‘Bypass not Throughpass’ group held a public meeting in July without inviting local MPs or members of Highways England (HE) carrying out the current work on options to tackle the congestion on the A27 between Worthing and Shoreham. I have already written about this on my website at the end of July but wanted to provide a further update.
Full minutes of the meeting will be available in the next couple of weeks and we have now agreed with Highways England that a public meeting will be held in Worthing at the end of October to give out as much information as possible to try to stem some of the concerns that have arisen. The date and venue should be confirmed in the next few days and I will make sure that local media are given good notice as well to encourage a large attendance.
The meeting heard a presentation from Highways England and specifically local manager Peter Phillips and Project Manager for the Worthing-Shoreham section Tom Beazley. As we have stated all along there will inevitably be a ‘quiet’ period whilst the consultants of the project work up proposals and carry out modelling to test the impact. This work will continue to the end of the year and will then go out to public consultation in the spring. A detailed timetable for this has always been available on my website as well as that of Highways England.
As a result HE understandably cannot rule anything in or out at this stage but it is very clear from their work to date that there is no prospect of a full dualling option through the course of the whole online route and probably no additional dualling on any section of it. Work is therefore being concentrated on improving the flow through the main ‘pinch points’ (Lyons Farm, Grove Lodge etc) and we also had a very interesting presentation from a local resident who is responsible for local BBC traffic reports and has done extensive research on the causes of congestion for the last 15 years. He produced some compelling evidence to show how work at these ‘pinch points’ could achieve a great deal and that traffic pollution is 40% higher when traffic is idle. Links to his research will be given in the minutes.
Other points:
- Scare stories about 4-6 lane highways caused by full dualling are just that, scare stories.
- Speed limits are unlikely to be altered much if at all
- No compulsory purchases of property have been made and indeed cannot be made until the final proposals have been signed off by the Transport Secretary. It is likely that this will be only a limited necessity in any case.
- No applications for planning permission for changes have been made and again this cannot happen until the final proposals have been settled.
- Any work is unlikely to include major structural additions like flyovers.
- If more effective options can be achieved beyond the indicated budget for the work then further funding options can be explored which is where the MPs can play a useful part
- The work on the Arundel section of the A27 is at a parallel stage with the Worthing-Shoreham section so it is important that they are complementary and do not just shift the blockages.
The Chairman of the new ‘Bypass not Throughpass’ group was invited to the meeting to make a presentation and hear what the Highways England representatives had to say. It was again made clear that a full bypass option had been modelled and ruled out at an early stage and that option has been taken off the table. This was down to cost effectiveness, environmental impact, and limited impact on the majority of A27 traffic which is local traffic. HE promised to provide detailed figures as to how they had costed the other options and also the traffic flow figures they have used.
Again they will be published on their website and mine as soon as they are available and can be explained in more detail at the public meeting.
Whilst many of us campaigned for a bypass option it is simply no longer an option, made less likely by the fact it would run almost exclusively through the National Park. Full dualling of an online option along the current route of the A27 was specified in the original plans to see if it is feasible and to make sure that the final result was not just minimal ‘tinkering’ with junctions that would have minimal impact and that all options were properly analysed. It is clear now that full dualling, and even limited dualling, is not going to happen and it is important to make sure that what is proposed will be of significant benefit.
All this will and must be subject to full public scrutiny and engagement which is why we set up the A27 Working Group in the first place and its members will play an important role when the plans are published. Whilst a full bypass may be the preferred option of some if it is not a possibility then it is important that we can support an effective option which is on offer otherwise we risk losing the whole project and reverting to the status quo which is what happened back in the 1990’s and would be a disaster.
I hope this is helpful and I will update my website as soon as further news is available as I am determined that everyone should be 'in the loop’ as much as possible if we are to achieve any degree of consensus which can make these improvements a reality, having campaigned for them for so many years.
