30 years ago

Parish councillors are determined to bring a halt to traffic problems in Storrington’s Church Street despite county council claims it is no worse than many others in West Sussex.

On Monday, the highways, footpaths and street lighting committee will report to the newly elected parish council that they have already written to the county in a fresh bid to have no waiting and no parking restrictions in the problem street increased.

The committee is convinced further restrictions will help ease congestion, and intends to collect more evidence to strengthen its case.

Last year, a resident of Church Street caused a rumpus at a council meeting when he claimed that the road was a ‘death-trap’. He accused the parish council of apathy over cars parked on the footway and motorists ignoring existing yellow lines.

He called for a one-way system in Church Street but his proposal was rejected.

Earlier, in april last year, the parish council had asked the county to apply a total parking ban on the east side of Church Street by painting double yellow lines.

It was felt motorists would think twice before flouting these. The resident had pointed out that these restrictions had not been implemented by the county council.

An on site meeting last month failed to convince two representatives from the county council of the need for further restrictions.

One train an hour to London, no platform staff and commuter fares doubled – that’s what the controversial Serpell Report would mean for Horsham, according to the National Union of Railwaymen.

NUR’s 145-strong Horsham branch will be launching its own campaign against the report on June 6 by distributing leaflets outside the town station.

It will form part of the union’s nation-wide protest at Serpell, which it claims would destroy british Rail if implemented.

The report presented the Government with six options.

Transport Minister David Howell agreed to drop the most extreme plan – slash the rail network from 10,300 to 1,600 miles of track – but the other five, equally controversial options are still on the table.

Horsham NUR branch secretary David Paige condemned Serpell as ‘basically an anti-rail document’. “It is a re-run of Beeching, yet it is clear that Serpell has learned nothing from the experience.

“Do the people of Horsham remember what happened in the Beeching era - closures of Southwater, the Brighton line, Cranleigh and Guildford?

“Governments should be doing the opposite now that Southwater’s population has turned it into a mini-town. Build a station, we say. The same goes for Barns Green, which has trebled in population – what price a halt there?

“Or do we want tracks pulled up and concrete poured over to make roads?”

A shock proposal to suspend football at Horsham FC for a year has been made by the club’s directors.

Chairman of the directors and club president, Geoff Holtom, said the board came to the conclusion at a meeting last week ‘that the current financial position of the club together with the lack of practical support from members and supporters cannot sustain a further season’s football’.

He confirmed: “A proposition will be put to an extraordinary meeting of Horsham FC on June 2 recommending that all footballing activities of the club should be suspended for a period of one year.”

He added that the board hoped that the meeting of shareholders and members would agree to continue club social and fundraising activities and that the Queen Street ground would be made available to other organisations to help reduce the club’s debt.