A27 Arundel Bypass: Campaigners complain of unkept promises after latest proposals revealed

Significant changes have been made to a proposed £320 million road scheme along the A27, which has split opinion in West Sussex. The Arundel Bypass scheme is the subject of a fresh consultation, with further public events planned due to design changes. Click here to see the list of events.

A number of SussexWorld readers on social media have called on the developers to get the bypass built as soon as possible and questioned the constant delays.

Derek Waller, vice-chairman of OneArundel, a bypass support group: said: “They’ve asked some sensible extra questions. The only one that concerns us is Crossbush and they appear to have made some sensible suggestions so we’ll go with it.

"The only disappointment is that it keeps moving to the right, in date terms.

"What we want is a bypass as soon as possible. They don’t expect to be open until 2030. It’s a concern for some of us as we might not be around to see it.

“But it needs to be done properly. They are intent on doing it properly and if that’s the timescale, then so be it.”

‘Still breaks a specific promise’

National Highways, sponsored by the Department for Transport, said it received ‘thousands of responses’ to its statutory consultation, which ran from January 11 until March 8.

As a result of the feedback and ‘ongoing design work’, the developers have proposed ‘some changes’ to the design of the scheme and is seeking fresh views from the public.

This supplementary consultation, which opened last Wednesday (November 16) runs until Friday, December 16. The four key areas which have been refined are; changes to reduce traffic impacts in and around Walberton; mitigating the scheme’s effects on bats, near Tye Lane; updated proposals in relation to the Avisford Park Golf Club and potential changes at the Crossbush Junction.

Sally Ward, from Walberton Friends and Neighbours, said campaigners are ‘really pleased’ that the ‘huge outcry’ from the community about increased traffic through Walberton ‘forced National Highways to think again’.

"However the so-called mitigation for increased traffic through Walberton and neighbouring lanes still breaks a specific promise made by National Highways at the 2019 non-statutory consultation – that there would be no rat running in and around Walberton,” she added.

"It is our view that the congestion at Crossbush will move to Fontwell. Traffic will grind to a halt at two consecutive sets of traffic lights at both Fontwell roundabouts. Drivers will find other ways through our lanes and villages: the opposite of making it easier to get around on foot or by bike as claimed by NH on page seven of the consultation brochure.

“We strongly challenge NH's anticipated saving of nine minutes between Crossbush and Fontwell East as this was calculated before the recent decision to position traffic lights there. Calculating to the other side of Fontwell West would give a more accurate view and not doing so we feel is fundamentally misleading.”

Scheme is ‘fundamentally flawed’

Nick Harvey, a ‘very concerned local resident’ of Walberton, said he had ‘hoped there would be more fundamental changes’ to the proposals – ‘including the possibility of returning to the magenta route’.

"This is one option that was favoured more by the district council and county council,” Nick said. “National Highways has produced some so called mitigations which I feel have tinkered around the edges of the scheme which I think is fundamentally flawed.

"They don't seem to have factored in the impact of the housing that is already being built in Fontwell. It’s an extraordinary amount of additional traffic that is going to find its way onto Fontwell Avenue – it’s going to be gridlocked on an almost permanent basis.

“We face the prospect of money being spent on a scheme that isn’t going to achieve anything.”

Nick called on National Highways ‘to do three things’:

- “Look very closely at supplementary consultation and ask themselves why the Fontwell East traffic lights are not included in that. Make sure they explain the thinking behind that.

- “Provide an up-to-date cost estimate for the scheme.

- “Tell local communities what local housing developments have been taken into account.”

He added: “It seems quite perverse that they can contemplate a scheme which would have such a tremendous impact.

"I understand they have to take a strategic view but we don’t think this is. It’s being done to benefit the construction companies.

“It certainly doesn’t look good at the moment.”

Concerns remain over children’s safety

If the scheme goes ahead, Walberton CE Primary School, the community playcentre and Walberton pre-school find themselves 150m from a four-lane highway ‘surging through the countryside’.

Ms Ward said: “The so-called traffic mitigation for Walberton creates two or more rat runs where there was one and deposits 800 extra cars a day into the village where children have to frequently cross the road for lack of continuous pavements. We feel the corner of Tye Lane and The Street will become an accident black spot of the future. We feel deaths will be inevitable.

“Building an expensive ill-conceived unpopular road at this time flies in the face of the climate emergency and budget deficit. It should be cancelled and due consideration given to the Arundel Alternative – a cheaper small solution which National Highways refuse to consider.”