A27 campaign ‘We deserve more cash’

Campaigners have urged the Transport Secretary to break a stalemate over improvements to the A27 in Worthing after the Government pledged more money for a bypass project in Arundel.

Jack Delbridge, chairman of the Bypass Not A27 Throughpass Residents’ Action Group, invited Grant Shapps to see the traffic and pollution issues on the A27 for himself in the hopes he could boost the project’s current £100million budget. He said: “We have been quiet because of the lockdown, but we are still here and we are still fighting.”

Highways England recently announced its intention to build a bypass on the A27 in Arundel which is thought would cost £450million. At the time, Jason

Hones from Highways England confirmed it had ‘rebalanced’ its entire national investment strategy to make sure it was fully funded internally. Meanwhile, the Worthing Bypass has been in limbo since 2017, when the public did not back the limited improvements to the current A27 which were on the table.

Of the Arundel Bypass, which is yet to get the green light, Mr Delbridge said: “Once it is built, combined with additional traffic from the planned IKEA at New Monks Farm, traffic congestion and pollution from stationary and slow moving traffic is only going to get worse.

“Surely Worthing, Sompting and Lancing deserve at least a proportionate level of investment to provide us with a proper bypass. An alternative proper bypass has been costed at around £600million.”

The group’s proposed route would leave the A27 at the Shoreham Flyover, go along the A283 to the north of Steyning and join the A24 at the Washington roundabout. The route would then follow the

A24 south until going via Long Furlong to rejoin the existing A27 at Patching. A spokesman for the Department For Transport said the improvements are included in its strategy for the next five years.