Pulborough traders call for rate rebates over ongoing A29 road closure

The traders say that they have seen their incomes fall by up to 80 per cent since the road was closed three months ago following a landslide.

Now they are calling for immediate and back-dated rate rebates from Horsham District Council and for an urgent improvement in information from West Sussex County Council to help with their business survival plans.

They say that Chichester District Council froze rates for all local businesses when a road was closed in Midhurst two weeks ago because of a hotel fire – and they think Horsham Council should do something similar.

Kerry Coughtrey who owns the refill store, The Greenhouse, on the A29 just north of the road closure, said she has had to reduce staff hours and start home deliveries after losing 30 per cent of her footfall since the road closed in December.

“We’d like Horsham District Council to be as pro-active as Chichester District Council have been in Midhurst to freeze the rates for all local businesses until the situation is

fully resolved and to back date it to December.

"Small independent businesses are the lifeblood of villages like Pulborough and to see any go because of this would be devastating.”

And she urged the county council to engage with local businesses. “Nobody has spoken to me about the effect on my business,” she said.

West Sussex County Highways announced last week that it is going to open the road one way ‘shortly’ after reaching an impasse with local landowners but residents say the council has not decided how the partial opening would work.

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Matthew Hennings, managing director of Hennings Wine merchants, whose business is based south of the road closure, has warned that if businesses are not consulted

more damage could be done by ill-thought-out road plans.

“Creating a solution with traffic lights would harm our businesses even more and could create gridlock for us and many residents,” he said.

Resident Jane Mote added: ‘West Sussex County Council has had more than three months to come up with a plan B and instead they are still floundering. It is hard for businesses and locals to have no clarity. It is having a devastating effect on our morale and livelihoods.

"We’re not getting the same level of urgency and support that has been seen in Midhurst after their recent fire and road closure and people want to know why.”

Meanwhile, residents have launched a petition calling on the Department of Transport to appoint a traffic manager to take over West Sussex Highways.