Such a relief

He states: “Arundel has already got a bypass, named as such on all road maps, and only a few headbangers on The Causeway will have you believe otherwise.”

Perhaps it will be Mr Foster ‘headbanging’ this week, or at least, eating a small portion of humble pie, as regardless what it is called on maps, the A27 through Arundel was built as and always has been merely a relief road and not a bypass.

Back in the 1970s, the former Duke of Norfolk, Duke Bernard, is on record as saying: “If the local people support the proposed relief road and it is subsequently built, it will be many years before they get their bypass.”

It’s also worth noting that all the original papers and plans from the 1970s all contain the phrase ‘relief road’ to describe the project.

The key differences are that a bypass is designed to be a high speed road, usually dual carriageway, with curves where they occur designed to high speed standards, while a relief road is not so designed.

A relief road must have a number of junctions to facilitate access to the town centre and to outlying residential and industrial areas.

It must facilitate good traffic flow — that is essential — but not at high speeds, because with many junctions on a relief road, high speed would be essentially dangerous.

Arundel has been a bottleneck in the A27 traffic flow for many years. Arundel Town Council recognises the urgent need for a bypass and fully supports such a scheme. Even more so with the huge amount of new housing planned to be built within a 15-20 mile radius of the town.

Mark Phillips, Arundel town counciller

Pearson Road

Arundel