Transport

A24

On 20 August 2004 West Sussex County Council formally submitted its planning application for improvements to the A24 between Ashington and Southwater. This application was considered at the WSCC Planning Committee meeting in Southwater on 25 January 2005 and was approved despite objections from the public and concerns expressed by members about the new flyover planned for Buck Barn. Further consideration was to be given to lengthening slip roads to accommodate high speeds together with additional safer access for agricultural traffic.

CPRE welcomes the safety improvements both already in place and ongoing. It appears that these have already reduced the accident rate. However, CPRE objects to the construction of grade separated interchanges or 'flyovers' especially at Buck Barn because the effect will be to create a racetrack from Washington to Southwater. We find it strange that WSCC is promoting expensive flyovers (at least £24m and now probably more) when other cheaper proven solutions are available and already in place further north and south on the A24 and on the A264 to Crawley . Likewise there are only roundabouts on the A24 in Surrey where there are no plans for any flyovers.

It appears that the proposed flyovers are being justified on the basis of increased traffic and travel time savings ie more/faster cars. Building new road capacity to serve greater traffic flows between the South Coast and Gatwick seems to fly in the face of Government transport strategy which is seeking to reduce travel-to-work miles by locating new housing development close to employment areas. Certainly, only a small proportion of the predicted traffic increase is likely to be generated from within the local area. Nor is it clear how all the additional traffic will access the new superfast A24 given the existing bottlenecks at A27 Broadwater/Findon/Washington, Daux and Dorking/Deepdene.

CPRE also believes that insufficient consideration has been given to the countryside and the environment in terms of visual impact, amenity, noise, light and pollution. The A23/A272 flyover at Bolney serves the A23/M23 trunk route linking the A27/M27 with the M25 and is perhaps the nearest best example of a similar scheme. Is this what we want for the A24 at Buck Barn? Is it really necessary? After all the A24 is not a motorway yet.

The South East Plan is currently out for public consultation but this scheme does not appear to be a priority regional transport project. In addition, and perhaps most importantly, the Government withdrew its provisional funding for the scheme last December. Without funding it cannot proceed. Let's hope so.

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