Breakthrough in bid to tackle anti-social driving on A29
After months of work, Bury A29 Road Improvement Committee (BA29RIC) is delighted to announce a major breakthrough in its efforts to reduce dangerous and anti-social road behaviour on the A29 as it passes through Bury.
West Sussex County Council hasconfirmedthatacommunity Highwaysscheme(chs)application by the BA29RIC for a reduction in the speed limit on the A29 has been successful and will be implemented.
The scheme will see a reduction in the speed limit on the A29 to 40mph throughout the parish, from the onset of the current 50mph limit near Carringdales, allthewayupburyhilltobeyond the South Downs Way crossing point.
It is hoped but not yet confirmed that at that point the current national speed limit will be dropped to 50mph to the Whiteways roundabout. The news follows a great deal of work by members of the BA29RIC community action group and before that by Bury Parish Council, which supported the CHS application.
It represents a major breakthrough in attempts to reduce thegrowingproblemofnoiseand dangerous speeding on Bury Hill predominantly by a persistent minority of motorcyclists which hasdisturbedlifeinburyparticularly over summer weekends for more than 20 years.
The BA29RIC’S work has won important support from key figures including MP Andrew Griffith, Police and Crime Commissioner Katy Bourne, county councillortomrichardson,who helped to draft the CHS application,anddistrictcouncillorjohn Cross.
Work has included data collection and liaising with Sussex Police over enforcement, as well asdrawingupavisionofhowbetter the A29 might serve the community of Bury in the future. In the summer of 2023, a mini-conferenceonthea29inburyjointly staged by the BA29RIC and Bury Parishcouncilatburyvillagehall wasattendedbymembersandofficers from West Sussex County Council,thesouthdownsnationalparkauthorityandchichester District to name a few.
The new speed reduction will discourage those who see Bury
Hill as an opportunity to speed dangerouslyalongthehill’sseries of bends, with loud engine noise being funnelled down to the village and beyond.
Bury Parish Council has agreed to donate 20% of the costs of the scheme and the BA29RIC isexploringadditionalsourcesof funding.ifwecancontributesignificantly towards the costs it is more likely that implementation will be prioritised and expedited by the Highways Department.
But this is only the beginning of the BA29RIC’S ambitions. At the 2023 mini-conference, the Ba29ricpresentedanambitious 12-pointplan,ofwhichaspeedreduction was just one part. Once achieved, the new 40mph limit willallowourcommunitytostage Speedwatch traffic monitoring operations (previously impossible alongside a 50mph-limit road).
And the BA29RIC is also actively urging the deployment of average speed cameras on Bury Hill to further discourage speeding,whichoftenexceeds100mph.
The BA29RIC is in dialogue with PCC Katy Bourne about the possibility of such cameras being installedinmuchthesamewayas theyhaveinneighbouringhampshire to tackle similar problems.
A West Sussex man who lives with type 1 diabetes trekked to the Everest Base Camp in Nepal to raise funds for Diabetes UK.
James Nicholls, 29, from Yapton, near Arundel, works for the South Downs National Park and was diagnosed with diabetes in November 2021. James said:
“"We trekked 90 miles and climbed more than 8,000 metres over 12 days. It was an incredible experience. The people of Nepal are amazing and made the experience what was is. A true once-in-a-lifetime achievement! I’m delighted to have raised £700 for Diabetes UK and would like to thank everyone who supported me.” James has a type of diabetes called Latent Autoimmune Diabetes in Adults, LADA for short. He added: “The diagnosis was a bit of a shock. There is diabetes in my wife’s family but none in mine so although I knew about the condition I wasn’t expecting to have it myself.”
James has a Justgiving page which is still open https://www.justgiving.com/page/ jamesebc2023.