A27 Dreaming.

Last week we were pleased to publish the thoughts of the local representative of walking and cycling charity Sustrans. This week we focus on what our local MP’s have to say.

Tim Loughton for East Worthing and Shoreham is none to pleased with what consultants’ acting on behalf of Highways England have come up with. Commenting in the Worthing Herald he said:

‘The study has identified other more substantial proposals involving grade separation that would be effective but which they have been unable to pursue because they exceed the Department for Transport’s indicated budget. We have been saying this all along and so Peter Bottomley and I went straight to see Chris Grayling last week to explain how we need to look at a larger budget more in line to that which the Arundel stretch is working on.’

So with a budget of £300million that Arundel have, what could Worthing get for the sort of money?

Well it’s unlikely even that amount of money would be enough to build the multilane dual carriageway through the town so eagerly wanted in 2014 by the MP. However there is a worrying comment contained in the MP’s latest newsletter. He said:

“In the absence of a bypass through the Downs being an affordable or effective proposition at this time the only solution is for grade separation involving flyovers and/or underpasses at the key junctions. We are pleased that Highways England have looked at these options and clearly identified major benefits but have not been able to explore them further as they come in over the indicated budget.”

What this of course means it’s a scheme that will do nothing for local traffic but everything to speed long distance HGV’s through the residential area.

So what has Sir Peter Bottomley the Worthing West MP’s had to say about this saga, well…eh not much that we could find?

He has of course teamed up with his chum Tim Loughton to visit Transport Secretary Chris Grayling to see if the money tree can be shaken again, but is tight lipped whether the trip was worth while.

Meanwhile the MP for Arundel is happy to strongly support a full bypass for his town, acknowledging there are “25,000 traffic movements through Arundel, most of them not local”.

You think that's bad Mr H. A mere trickle compared to the 31000 or so passing through Worthing each day. With that in mind and the consultation you are about to complete good folk of Worthing. What are you going to tell Highways you want? louder can't hear you LOUDER