'Motorist hell spot’ - Government minister explains what is needed before progress can be made on A27 in Sussex

The comments were made by Peter Kyle – Secretary of State for Business and Trade – during Prime Minister Keir Starmer’s visit to Portslade on Tuesday (May 26).

Sir Keir toured Acorn Nursery following the announcement of new government measures aimed at helping families with childcare costs and tackling hidden nursery fees.

During a media Q&A alongside the Prime Minister, Mr Kyle – Member of Parliament (MP) for Hove and Portslade – responded to a question about the long-running debate over improvements to the A27 — the only major east to west route, south of the M25.

Responding to concerns about congestion and stalled improvement plans, he said: “It is very contentious but also locally there's been a huge amount of controversy around it. No plan has ever been to bring the community together to see a way through that project.

“So the local authorities and the regional authorities have got to get together and find a consensus on the way forward.

“That's the only way that we're going to find a way to really crack that because it is an area of outstanding natural beauty but it is also a motorist hell spot.

“I know that because I drive it a lot myself and have been through it a lot. But unless we can find consensus I think it's very difficult to find a way through.”

The A27 has long been the subject of debate across Sussex, with campaigners and businesses calling for upgrades to ease congestion around bottlenecks including Worthing, Arundel and Chichester, while opponents have raised concerns over environmental impacts and the effect on nearby communities.

Plans for a more comprehensive solution, including a potential bypass around Chichester, had been shelved for years following disagreements over routes. Their full removal from the government’s infrastructure pipeline has since extinguished hopes of a large-scale intervention in the foreseeable future.

The result is a growing sense of frustration among residents and businesses, who face the prospect of prolonged disruption without a clear long-term fix.

Chichester MP Jess Brown-Fuller – in a weekly column for the Observer – wrote: "I am furious that even with the well documented issues surrounding the A27, the government has chosen to remove any major upgrades to the arterial road strangling Chichester, from their recently published Road Investment Strategy.

"The plans to upgrade the A27 were shelved a decade ago, after a local consensus was not reached over potential bypass routes. Since my election, I have been campaigning for upgrade plans to be reinstated back into the delivery pipeline, after watching the situation worsen over years.

"Far from providing a solution, the government have chosen to remove the A27 bypass proposals from ‘shelved’ to removed entirely.

"They stated in their correspondence to me: ‘we inherited from the previous government a long and unaffordable list of schemes and have had to review the programme to determine which are still viable and which offer the best value for money for taxpayers’.

"They also said: ‘while I appreciate that this may come as a disappointment to your constituents, they will feel the impact of the wider regional benefits from the investment in the South East’.”

According to the government, the A27 through Chichester is ‘geographically constrained’ between the South Downs National Park to the North and the sea to the south, ‘making any options to improve the route very challenging’.

A Department for Transport (DfT) spokesperson said: “We know congestion on the A27 is a real problem for people in Chichester, which is why National Highways considered a range of options to improve the route.

"However, the high cost and difficulty of making major changes in such a built-up area meant plans could not be progressed further.

“National Highways will keep working with local partners to find alternative solutions.”

In East Sussex, a package of improvements is planned for the A259 between Brighton and Eastbourne – ‘including enhanced access to public transport, cycling & walking improvements’. There will also be ‘localised road and junction capacity improvements’, according to an interactive map.

The government’s map also states that funding is 'continuing' for the A259 in Arun, including the Comet Corner junction and Bridge Road (Tesco) junction.

The investment is part of the third Road Investment Strategy (RIS3), a £27 billion national plan aimed at renewing ageing roads, fixing potholes, and upgrading major junctions. More than £4 billion is earmarked for the South East over five years, including Sussex.

The DfT said RIS3 has a ‘strong focus on renewals rather than enhancements’. The department plans to invest a ‘record £8.4 billion’ over the next five years to’ renew ageing assets across the network’.

This is intended to ‘improve the resilience and performance of the network’ through ‘better road surfaces, clearer signs and modernised roadside technology’.

The DfT added: “We have reviewed the schemes to focus on those that are practically deliverable in the short term and affordable in the long term.”