Agenda item

Report by Assistant Director (Highways, Transport and Planning).

The Committee is asked to review the emerging views on the Highways England consultation on options for the A27 at Worthing and Lancing.

56.1     The Cabinet Member for Highways and Transport, Cllr Dennis, introduced the report saying that the A27 was a road high on the national agenda with pinch points at Chichester, Arundel, Worthing and Lancing.  Cllr Dennis said she would have liked to have seen a bigger ambition for the Worthing and Lancing section of the A27 but recognised that funding was not currently available for a large scheme, and the proposals put forward by National Highways were only intended to be a temporary solution.

56.2     The Transport Planning and Policy Manager, Mr Hemmings, shared a presentation which talked through the consultation proposals along with a summary of the options, performance against scheme objectives and emerging conclusions.  Mr Hemmings reported that the ambitions were reflected in the Transport for South East’s Strategic Investment Plan which the Committee had considered at their meeting on 21 September 2022.

56.3     Committee Members heard a witness statement by Cllr Sparkes, Member for Cissbury, and a written statement from Cllr Smith, Member for Broadwater.

56.4     Members of the Committee asked questions and a summary of those questions and answers follows.

56.5     It had been concluded in the report that there were concerns about the effectiveness of the options in tackling road safety and it was felt that none of the options put forward by National Highways would significantly benefit non-motorised users, for example cyclists.  Officers reported that the ‘additional opportunities’ (involving active travel, bus service and infrastructure improvements) identified by National Highways were in line with the West Sussex Transport Plan.  Members were also concerned about the impact of the road improvements on community severance, particularly for people who do not have access to a car. Some members requested the provision of safe crossings of the A27, particularly where communities were severed, and that arrangements were compliant with Department for Transport’s Local traffic Note1.20 (cycle infrastructure design guidance).

56.6     Several members expressed doubts that the options put forward by National Highways would be sufficiently beneficial to outweigh the disruption that would be caused during construction.  Members raised concerns about where traffic would be diverted while the measures were being implemented, particularly large lorries.  Officers reported that traffic would need to continue to use the A27 corridor and the consultation gave no information on road closures or diversionary routes as this would be developed at a later stage of the project.

56.7     The proposal to close the Hadley Avenue junction with the A27 in Option 2 would allow a longer distance of two lanes of traffic to get more traffic through the junction before merging to a single lane. It was recognised by members, as highlighted by Cllr Sparkes, that the closure could cause problems for residents and services such as the household recycling and waste collections in Hadley Avenue that would need to take alternative routes.

56.8     The evidence that the options could decrease journey times could be outweighed by the projected increase in the number of accidents, which could delay the flow of traffic. 

56.9     Members questioned whether or not National Highways considered other Local Plans, planning approvals or proposals or the County Council’s plans and policies, when preparing its scheme proposals.  Members also asked whether the scale of improvements and their impacts would imply that the south coast had reached the end of its development potential.  Officers responded that stopping developments was inconsistent with national policy and that separate schemes are identified in Local Plans to mitigate development.

56.10  Traffic modelling undertaken by National Highways would have taken information on traffic flows in existing areas, with information about population, and where vehicles were travelling to and from, planning assumptions, and modelled it to test different transport intervention and options replicating real life conditions.  The models would need to be updated over time as other changes (e.g. planning decisions) were made in the areas concerned.

56.11  Cllr Sparkes reported to the Committee that, based on previous experience, switching off the traffic lights at the Grove Lodge Roundabout would make a smoother flow of traffic, with lower pollution levels.  When the lights had broken previously it had mostly been the summer holidays when there had been lower levels of usage.  Members of the Committee suggested that this arrangement could be trialled.  Officers reported that National Highways did consider options to remove traffic signals at Grove Lodge junction, but the traffic signals were key to allowing safe pedestrian crossings to and from Worthing College.  Residents could lobby National Highways directly with these suggestions if they wished. 

56.12  Resolved - That the Committee:

1.   Is unconvinced that the scale of the disruption caused by implementing the proposals is justified by the forecast benefits.

2.   Considers that the impact on the locality should be given greater weight in the consultation response.

3.   Considers that the consultation response should take account of local plan mitigations.

4.   Considers that the capacity of the A27 through West Sussex does not appear to be able to support the demands created by the scale of development that the government is expecting local planning authorities to deliver.

5.  Considers that proposals aimed at people that do not have access to a car should be safe and compliant with the Department for Transport’s Local Traffic Note 1/20, and aim to minimise community severance.