Dear constituent
I understand that a well-attended public meeting was held at Worthing College on Thursday (21 July) organised by a campaign group calling themselves ‘Bypass not A27 Throughpass’. Subsequently, I have been contacted by a number of constituents complaining that I did not attend and raising concerns about various claims which were made at the meeting and which could easily have been allayed if I, or representatives from Highways England, had been present at the meeting.
The fact is that I was specifically not invited, neither was my colleague, Sir Peter Bottomley. Having now found out who organised the meeting I have been told that it was a ‘community meeting’ to which it would appear that it was not deemed appropriate to invite the elected representatives of the local community. Fortunately, a number of councillors were present but only because they had received a flyer through their doors. I gather the impression was given at the meeting that work on the A27 improvements has been going on in secret and that decisions had already been taken without public consultation and even that planning permission had already been considered.
It is important for residents to know that none of this is true. As much as I know about the progress of the work undertaken by Highways England has been put in the public domain and has been discussed with a number of local residents’ groups, who sit on the A27 Working Group, including those responsible for organising last week’s public meeting. This information has been available on my website under the ‘A27 Working Group’ heading and I have regularly updated constituents in my monthly constituency e-newsletters and in my weekly Herald column. In addition, I have held no fewer than six ‘Talk to Tim’ public meetings around the constituency since the beginning of the year, including in Findon Valley, at which constituents have been able to raise any issues of local or national interest. We also discussed the A27 at length at the AGM of the Findon Valley Residents’ Association, which I attended as usual together with no fewer than five councillors.
It is particularly frustrating therefore that those who attended the public meeting were left with the impression that things were in some way being deliberately done behind their backs and that I am not very closely engaged with this important issue. Indeed, it was in order to make sure that local people were as engaged as possible in the A27 proposals that Sir Peter Bottomley and I asked Tom Wye to set up and chair the A27 Working Party last year. This has met four times so far and the minutes have been made public in the media and on my website.
The Working Group includes elected members from all the main political parties and local councils, including Sir Peter and me; representatives of local businesses and the Chamber of Commerce; and members of all the main residents’ groups from along the line of the A27 from Salvington to Shoreham. Over 40 people now sit on the group and it is up to them to report back to their respective members. The purpose of the group is to make sure that local people know what is going on and what to expect; to make sure they are fully engaged when the public consultation period starts; and to endeavour to coalesce around a favoured option if possible to make it more likely that the desperately needed upgrade to the A27 goes ahead and is not shelved again as it was back in the 1990’s.
In my near 20 years as one of the local MPs, the issue of the congested A27 has always been one of the biggest concerns of constituents. The situation does not get any better and it continues to impact on the quality of life for local people and businesses alike. After years of lobbying, we were delighted that the Government at last acknowledged the seriousness of the A27 problem and included it in the National Roads Plan, which was announced in December 2014 together with ring-fenced funding. Subsequently, Highways England were tasked to research into the extent and nature of the problem and start to work up proposals for addressing the congestion problem. This has been going on for some time now with preliminary reports published by Highways England which are available on their website at www.highways.gov.uk/roads/road-projects/worthing-and-lancing-improvement. In addition, you can subscribe to alerts as and when further news becomes available.
The time line for the work of Highways England is available above. It has not changed but inevitably there has been a period when there was little to report given the ‘Options Identification’ study work going on ahead of it being published in November of this year. Public consultation will begin in earnest in the spring of next year at which point it will be essential that local people are as engaged as possible and given all the options and the facts rather than the scare stories that appear to have been circulating, which many people understandably find distressing.
Soon after the outset of the work by Highways England, it was stated that a full bypass option around Worthing was not feasible. The same conclusion was reached when the studies were carried out in the 1990’s since when the area north of Worthing now largely falls within the National Park making an open road virtually impossible. In addition, conservative estimates for a possible tunnelling option – even if that were practical – start at about £1.2bn making it unaffordable. Even if this was an option a seven mile detour would not be attractive to most drivers let alone the 60% plus of traffic which is local traffic needing to access Worthing or surrounding towns. Therefore, the work now being undertaken has focused on the so-called ‘online option’ based on the A27’s existing route. They are also working on the basis that full dualing of the road should be considered though it is not clear whether this would be feasible or not at this stage. Certainly the main priority is to secure major improvements to the main ‘pinch points’ where the congestion is at its worst, such as Lyons Farm and Grove Lodge.
All this information has been in the public domain for some time. Representatives of some of the residents’ groups responsible for the public meeting have known this for all that time. They have sat on the A27 Working Group since its inception alongside me and had full access to Highways England as it carried out its work. Some of them have made clear that they oppose any new road work at all and only want to look at alternative ‘sustainable transport’ options which may play a part in finding solutions but will have little impact alone. I am therefore baffled as to why these groups have not passed on this information and effectively misled local people into thinking that a bypass is a viable option. I have asked for details of exactly who is behind this and what ‘hidden’ agendas they may have but so far no information has been forthcoming. If the intention is to frustrate any work on the A27 altogether then I think they should level with local people as the current congestion is simply untenable.
Sir Peter Bottomley and I will be arranging a public meeting of our own after the summer holidays and will invite Highways England to be part of that so people can hear facts rather than unfounded scare stories. I will continue to update my website but in the meantime I have provided a few responses to additional points arising from the meeting which have been sent to me.
- No plans have been published which would involve bulldozing 300 homes. Such upheaval would be highly undesirable and make the whole scheme unaffordable in any case. We have asked Highways England to make it clear as early as possible what properties, if any, may be in the line of any widened lanes, so as to avoid blight.
- There are no secret groups determining the proposals for the A27 which ‘have the ear of central government’ and are dominated by businesses. The A27 Working Party I sit on includes resident groups, elected representatives and local businesses, all of whom have a vested interest in finding an appropriate solution. Our meetings have been held at Worthing Town Hall and at the offices of Ricardo and B&W, who have kindly offered their premises for free. That does not mean they have any greater influence over the agenda or our work.
- Before any construction work can start there has to be a considerable period of robust public consultation which may result in plans being agreed, adapted or dropped. I am adamant that this must be a meaningful public consultation in order to secure my support as with any such major project which will have a significant impact on many local people. No planning applications have been made, mooted or discussed and are still a long way off.
- Highways England have already stated that the likely speed limit on the road will be no more than 50mph, certainly it will not be an 'Express Way' as some people at the meeting suggested. It is important that pedestrian will be able to travel from North and South in no less safe way than at the current time.
- My view has always been that finding an effective solution will involve significant upgrading of the major junctions where the delays occur and I have suggested that this should include short tunnels/underpasses though that is purely a personal layman’s view. That may or may not require full duelling of the stretch of A27 from Lyons Farm to Salvington but I do not think that the 2 are mutually dependent but again I am happy to wait to see the proposals worked up by the experts.
I hope that this clarifies the position but as always if there is anything else constituents would like to know then I am always happy to oblige.
Yours sincerely
Tim Loughton MP
