Almost £1m added to budget for A259 Bognor Regis to Littlehampton

The increase of £986,000 relates to the drawing up of a Full Business Case for the scheme, to be presented to the Department for Transport (DfT).

The change was made due to a £1.081m increase in costs, while a grant provided by the DfT turned out to be £95,000 less than had been estimated.

The enhancement scheme has been in the pipeline for years and has been through a number of public consultations. It was identified as a priority by the council in its Strategic Transport Investment Programme in 2019/20.

An Outline Business Case was submitted in 2023 and a budget of £3.419m approved for the Full Business Case.

A council spokesman said: “We are working with our contractor, Knights Brown Construction Limited, to finalise the construction programme and target cost for the Full Business Case. Work is also under way on the required carbon assessments and benefits monitoring.

“Although the submission date is not yet confirmed, we expect the Full Business Case to be ready in April, subject to wider project dependencies.”

Once the Full Business Case is approved, the £39m scheme is expected to include:

• New roundabouts with active travel and bus priority measures at the Comet Corner and Oystercatcher junctions;
• Additional active travel and bus priority measures at the Church Lane roundabout;
• New active travel measures at the Ferry Road junction;
• A new left turn lane and active travel measures on the Bridge Road approach to the Bridge Road roundabout;
• New active travel measures between Oystercatcher and Church Lane; and
• New speed limits along the A259 corridor between Flansham Lane and Bridge Road roundabouts.

The spokesman added: “Following the successful Outline Business Case, the Department for Transport has agreed a capped funding contribution of up to £30.588m, which will be released once the Full Business Case is approved.”