Are all options still on table?

The online Community Conference organised by our MP Gillian Keegan to

‘dive into the issues relating to the challenges locally to balance the need to provide more homes with protecting our natural environment and existing communities’ is reported in her regular column in this week’s Observer – from which these quotes are taken – as well as in your pages.

The seriousness of the challenges she refers to will depend much on where one lives in the district.

Some will wonder what the fuss is about, but for others these are very real. There were familiar headlines:

‘key infrastructure, the A27, planning and development, and the environmental concerns including sewerage (sic) releases into both the Chichester and Pagham Harbours’.

Among the answers provided by the panellists there was one item of interest to anyone anywhere in The District, when the Highways England representative mentioned that HE is planning to embark on wide-ranging stakeholder engagement and open discussions around the A27 this autumn.

I particularly note that Gillian Keegan writes that: “Having a transparent and open process with Highways England has been a goal of mine ever since becoming an MP, so I am pleased that we are heading in that direction.”

I am also reminded of her 2019 election promise ‘that she is fighting for an all options consultation including southern and northern routes for the A27 to ensure a transparent process’.

Two months before the General Election she wrote in her same Observer column that she was ‘focused on trying to secure funds for a rerun of the original Highways England consultation – with all options on the table’. This was something denied to the public back in 2016 when the two northern options were withdrawn just before the originally planned consultation.

Is Mrs Keegan still ‘heading in that direction’?

KEITHKMARTIN Manor Farm Barns, Earnley