Bypass undeliverable

He states that I am “chairman of a group of county council officers discussing highway matters in East Arun”.

There is no such group, but I do chair the Joint East Arun Area Committee Highways Group, which is composed not of county council officers, but of town, parish, district and county councillors representing each of Littlehampton, Rustington, East Preston, Angmering and Ferring.

Our concerns are for the road and footpath network in East Arun, and we decide priorities for roadworks, yellow lines, school safety zones, etc.

We have had no part whatsoever in “concerted efforts to drive forward the rash of provocative developments now established along the A259”. I am sure that my colleagues will be offended at this totally untrue slur on my and their reputation.

There is another group, chaired not by myself, but by district councillor Ricky Bower, which concerns itself with proposed housing developments in north Littlehampton, made up of county, district and town councillors and attended by county and district council officers.

These developments have been promoted entirely by the land agents and by the developers.

The main purpose of the North Littlehampton steering group has been to ensure that if and when any large developments go ahead, as they now will, that the developer pays for essential infrastructure such as a new bridge crossing over the railway to replace the level crossing, for a Lyminster by-pass, cycle ways, a new primary school, new allotments and playing fields, as well as a significant proportion of lower-cost housing for our local people That aim has been achieved in binding legal agreements.

The A259 study to which he refers seeks to take that further, and to see how the two “missing links” in the dual carriageway (from the Angmering by-pass to the village’s railway station, and from The Body Shop headquarters to Wick) can be funded and constructed.

Any suggestion of a new northern Littlehampton by-pass is undeliverable both in cost and land use, and will serve only to confuse local people.

Dr James Walsh

Liberal Democrat County, district and town councillor for LittlehamptonEast

and Beach ward