Fears over plans for changes to village roadway

The supermarket giant is seeking planning permission from Horsham District Council to make changes to a bus turning circle in nearby Old Mill Drive.

Waitrose orginally planned to build a superstore in the area and proposed to relocate the turning circle as part of that development.

But now it wants to make changes so that it can sell the land for ‘future development.’

However, local resident Philip Stanley, says he fears the changes will lead to road safety problems for both pedestrians and drivers.

Plans for re-siting bus stops would mean people having, in future, to cross the road to reach Waitrose, “putting pedestrians more at risk,” he said. And he said he felt the proposals should only be considered as part of a wider transport infrastructure scheme.

But, a spokesman for Waitrose said that safety was ‘a top priority’ for the company and that thorough road safety audits had been carried out.

“The current proposals we’ve submitted were revised before submission following feedback from the independent road safety audit which was undertaken.”