A27 improvements 'continue to be priorities' for West Sussex County Council after bypass project scrapped

The Arundel Bypass project was scrapped by the new Labour government after decades of planning.

While the Arundel scheme has been confirmed as abandoned, there have still not been any updates from the government on improvements to the A27 at Worthing or Chichester.

Proposals for schemes at both sites had been drawn up but improvements planned for Chichester were scrapped in the spring of 2017, with then Transport Secretary Chris Grayling blaming his decision on ‘the withdrawal of support by local councils for the shortlisted options and significant local campaigns’.

And in February this year, it appeared plans for Worthing had stalled, with National Highways saying: “Currently, there is no solution that commands broad support, and it is only right that we take more time to reflect on this.”

Last week, new Transport Secretary Louise Haigh said: “I am commissioning an internal review of DfT’s capital spend portfolio. We will bring in external expertise and move quickly to make recommendations about current and future schemes.”

Improvements to the A27 trunk road and complementary public transport improvements at Chichester, Arundel, Worthing and Lancing are priorities in the West Sussex Transport Plan.

This states that improvements are needed to ‘increase capacity, improve reliability and safety’ and to ‘help increase the competitiveness of local businesses and attract investment’.

A county council spokesperson said: “Notwithstanding the recent announcement about the scrapping of the A27 Arundel Bypass, improvements to the A27 trunk road and complementary public transport improvements at Chichester, Arundel, and Worthing & Lancing continue to be priorities for the county council, as the local highway authority.

"The A27 is a trunk road and, therefore the responsibility of National Highways. The county council will continue to work with National Highways to secure improvements at these locations.”

Beccy Cooper, the new MP for Worthing West, said the future of the A27 is a ‘wicked problem’ but ‘hopefully not an unsolvable one’.

She told the Worthing Herald: “The position is locked into how we look at our coastal area and how we commute to wider area of Sussex.

“Sustainable travel infrastructure is very much lacking across Sussex.

“Trains are not bad but you could argue we should have a fast train to the capital and stopping services along the coast. Buses in Brighton do alright but in Worthing they are not the natural easy fit for people that they should be.

"Rural areas are very poorly served with alternatives to their cars. We need to think about road usage. There’s no point thinking about Arundel having a bypass but [forgetting about] Worthing and having a big log jam here.

"Speaking for leaders in Sussex, I'd much rather take a Sussex-wide approach and coastal approach.”

Dr Cooper said the government should support people in finding ‘intelligent’ alternatives to driving a car.

"It’s about having multi-modal transport solutions,” she said.

A27 clearly isn't a good piece of infrastructure at the moment but we don't talk about trains, buses or obvious options of sustainable transport.

"Without that, we are on to a loser. You have to look at it more strategically for Sussex. Much more people are going east to west now. Road use needs to be much of a sustainable transport package.”