Angry Pulborough residents call for urgent review over A29 road closure

The road has been closed since December 28 following a landslide which left mud and debris on the carriageway.

A large group of residents and parish councillors gathered at the landslip site yesterday (Monday) to show their anger at what they say is West Sussex County Council’s continuing lack of action on re-opening the road.

The council says it is still negotiating with landowners on the closed section and won’t start work until those talks are completed.

But parish councillor and local trader Elizabeth Hunt has written a strongly-worded letter to county council chief executive Becky Shaw and council leader Paul Marshal.

She and other parish councillors are calling for an urgent review of what they say “should have been a relatively minor landslip has become a major economic and safety issue for the village of Pulborough.”

Local businesses have been badly disrupted by the road closure with some facing up to 80 per cent loss in earnings.

Matthew Hennings, managing director of Hennings Wine merchants, said a county highways officer had said several times at a public meeting in the village that the problem was not an issue about money or liability “but,” he said, “if that was true why have they not been able to get this road open by now?

“Footfall to our shop is 20 per cent down and our drivers are needing to spend a lot longer navigating unsuitable roads to get in and out of our warehouse.

"It is dangerous and unacceptable that this has gone on for so long. We need the road open to two-way traffic within the two weeks promised – creating a one-way solution with traffic lights would harm our businesses even more.”

Have you read? Novel new services launched at Horsham John Lewis in major makeover

Sussex village pub put up for sale – along with 60 others across the country

Horsham’s last remaining female taxi driver says farewell to life behind the wheel

Local resident Alison Howard, Hennings company secretary, said she was most worried about pedestrian safety. “My mother is in her 80s and feels really unsafe – ambulances would struggle in an emergency and there are no safe pedestrian routes.”

Fellow local resident Jane Mote said: “The council officers and county councillors responsible for highways keep fobbing us off with promises that things will change soon and yet they are nowhere to be seen.”