PM discusses congestion and water pollution in Sussex
Continued from front page During his visit to Sussex, the Prime Minister Rishi Sunak also spoke about congestion on the A27 with East Worthing & Shoreham MP Tim Loughton
Mr Sunak was also spoke aboutcongestiononthea27with East Worthing & Shoreham MP Tim Loughton.
The Prime Minister said: “We’reinvestingarecordamount inroadsgenerally,andotherbits of the A27 have had that investment, not a million miles away from here.
Iknowit’ssomethingthattim hasconsistentlyraisedinparliamentasbeinganissue,andaswe decide these things, you can rest assured that he’ll continue to do that and the Roads Minister will belisteningattentively.butthisis somethingthattimhasraisedin Parliament many, many times.”
Mr Loughton added: “The trouble is, it’s the busiest road around. We were going to have an Ikea on the A27 at Lancing which would have completely killed everything, fortunately that’s not now happening.
"Butwe’vegottodoalotmore to keep the traffic flowing and that’s why some of the works that the National Highways are doingwillhopefullyhelpthetraffic flow which is the problem.”
Mr Sunak also spoke about the government’s commitment to ‘cracking down’ on sewage pollution and holding water companies to account. He said: “We’veimposedthestrictestever legally-binding target on water companies. We’re actually now monitoring all these overflows that never happened before. By the end of the year, we’ll have 100 per cent done, governments haven’t done this in the past.
“We’rebeingincrediblytough on enforcement, so we’re having unlimited penalties for water companies, and Ofwat have been given new powers so they canlinkthingslikedividendand bonuspaymenttotheactualperformance of the company, makingsureit’smeetingallitstargets and improving the quality of water.
"We’realsodoinglongerterm things like wet wipes and forever chemicals, making sure they don’t find their way into the water in the first place.
"We’ve got a very clear plan. That plan is working, and if we stick with it we'll get the change we want to see.”
Amid the news that councils across the UK owe a combined £97.8billiontolenders,mrsunak was asked how the government was going to support local communities with funding.
Hesaid:“we’realwaystalking tocouncilsaboutthebestwaysto support them.
"This year, councils are getting roughly about a ten per cent increase on the amount of cash thattheyhaveavailabletospend, that’s a national average.
“We’realsoinvestingdirectly in local communities. Through the Levelling Up fund and the Towns Fund for example, communities across the South East, dozens and dozens of high streets, town centres, market towns are seeing that investment. “Across the South, probably almost 30 different towns are getting direct investment from thegovernmenttosupporttheir plans.”
Data from the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities (DLUHC) found that Eastbourne Borough Council had a total debt of £112million as of September 2023.