Action to stop parking on roundabouts in new Bersted estate

Action to stop parking around two roundabouts within a new Bersted housing estate is set to be taken.
ks190657-1 Bersted Roundabout  phot kate
One of the roundabouts on Elbridge Avenue in Bersted.ks190657-1 SUS-190312-211128008ks190657-1 Bersted Roundabout  phot kate
One of the roundabouts on Elbridge Avenue in Bersted.ks190657-1 SUS-190312-211128008
ks190657-1 Bersted Roundabout phot kate One of the roundabouts on Elbridge Avenue in Bersted.ks190657-1 SUS-190312-211128008

Elbridge Avenue is one of two roads providing access into the Willows Edge development, which when complete will total 800 homes, a community centre and a primary school.

Complaints have been received about cars parked on the paved area of the first roundabout, while vehicles left on the approach to the second are restricting sight lines and causing obstructions.

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A Traffic Regulation Order for double yellow lines, which will be funded by developer Persimmon Homes, was approved by West Sussex County Council’s Joint Western Arun Area Action Committee last Wednesday (November 27).

County councillors heard that a number of households had more cars than allocated spaces, leading them to park on the roundabouts and surrounding roads.

A total of 22 objections were received to the draft TRO, with residents mostly arguing that parking on the first roundabout was necessary due to there being insufficient parking allocated to individual properties within the estate.

Officers said that the need for emergency services to safely access the development outweighed the inconvenience of people having to find more suitable places to park.

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David Edwards, county councillor for Bersted, said: “It’s hugely dangerous. It’s difficult to find parking down there, but this is a safety issue without a shadow of a doubt.”

Paul Wells, a former district councillor, said some of the ways people were parking was ‘beyond belief’, with one case of an ambulance not being able to access a patient, while visibility was also an issue.

Hugh Coster, an Arun district councillor, was one of several to criticise the decision to allow this road layout in the first place.

He said: “It’s a serious design flaw that they have put four-bedroom, three-storey houses around that roundabout where there are bound to be families and families with children and teenagers who want cars.”

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If they approved the TRO he felt the cars would ‘move to a side road and it’s someone else’s problem’.

He asked why both roundabouts appeared ‘unnecessarily big’ and whether the county council could go back to the developer and ask them to reduce their sizes so the roads could be widened.

Mr Coster added: “Just to slap yellow lines in there is a sledgehammer to crack a nut.”

Officers described how the estate and its roads had been built to national standards.

Arun district councillor Matt Stanley said moving forward they needed to look at the size of garages and width of roads in new estates.

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