Back Tex ahead of critical A27 meeting in Whitehall

Cllr Tex Pemberton, West Sussex county cabinet member for highways and transport, is due to meet Tom Harris, parliamentary under-secretary of state for transport, at the Department of Transport.

And he urged Chichester district councillors at a meeting of the policy development committee to write to both Mr Harris and Mr Harris' boss, transport secretary Ruth Kelly, highlighting the importance of the improvements to the economy of the area, and the impact of the current problems on the A27.

"This would give power to my elbow," he declared.

Cllr Pemberton said he hoped the minister would agree the Chichester scheme should go forward, and then ask the Highways Agency to put forward a final detailed scheme, which would mean construction could then begin in 2013-14.

With Arundel, even if the minister gave a green light on February 20, the Highways Agency would say it could not get the job started anyway until 2015, within the process.

What he wanted was for some consultation on an Arundel scheme to be done now '“ the same as for Chichester.

Cllr Pemberton said the A3 improvements at Hindhead were taking 380m out of the investment programme for the region, because the minister had refused to treat this as a route of national importance '“ which would have meant the money came from central funds.

The A27 was put into the regional investment programme, and they had been working on it a long time, with a 2011-2016 timeframe, but it could be a start in about 2014 for the A27 at Chichester.

The A27 at Arundel and Worthing was in the timeframe post 2016.

He would be able to tell everyone much more on February 21, following the meeting with the minister.