Stop the Arundel Bypass! 

News article Bognor Regis Observer 15 December 2015

CONSULTATION on £14.8million improvements to the heavily-congested A259 will be launched in the new year.

West Sussex County Council (WSCC) will seek views on dualling of single-carriageway parts of the busy A-road in January or February.

The multi-million pound plans, the county council states, would result in more than £100million of financial benefits, through reduced travel time and vehicle operating costs.

A report states: “Congestion on the A259 in Littlehampton is acting as a barrier to local economic development.

“Proposals have been developed for the phased delivery of a series of junction and carriageway improvements to improve capacity and reduce congestion.

“The phased approach minimises the level of WSCC capital investment and makes best use of local development funding contributions as these become available.”

The junction and carriageway improvements relate to stretches of road between the Station Road roundabout to the A280 roundabout, near Haskins garden centre.

Additionally, improvements are planned between the Body Shop roundabout and the planned Fitzalan link road, north of the Littlehampton Academy.

Separate new pedestrian and cycling routes will also be constructed.

But while consultation will happen swiftly, WSCC has warned it could take at least 18 months to negotiate the purchase of land required to carry out any dualling.

Additional improvements to the Goring Crossways and Tesco (Broadpiece) roundabouts are not included in the first phase of development.

What do you think? Email your thoughts to news@littlehamptongazette.co.uk

Read more: http://www.bognor.co.uk/news/local/views-sought-on-major-14-8m-a259-works-1-7112389#ixzz3uR239FDJ

On 20th November our guest blog made these points about the A259:  

• The major conurbations except for Chichester are on the Coast, Worthing, Littlehampton and Bognor Regis none of whom are served by the A27, they are linked by the A259.  Arun District Council’s Local Plan has been rejected as it does not cater for enough new housing; the vast majority of the planned housing is to be on the A259 corridor.
• Since the SoCoMMS report the Angmering Bypass linking the A27 and A259 was opened 28^th February 2003, the North Bersted Bypass was opened on 17^th December 2014, taking much of the through traffic on the A259 out of North West Bognor and the Felpham Relief Road is now due to be opened in March 2016, this completes the major modernisation work on the A259 between Worthing and Chichester
• Parsons Brinkerhoff did a report for WSCC in February 2013, the “A259 Improvement Study”.  Sadly this only looked at the Worthing to the Arun section of the road.  It took account of some of the new developments in the area, but unfortunately for the public purse, it did not consider the influence of the North Bersted and Felpham schemes, making its conclusions challengeable.
• As the A259 is connecting the major economic drivers of the region it would seem illogical to put a major investment in the A27, at Arundel, which there seem to be no supportable business case for.  The traffic situation at Arundel could be alleviated and the flow of traffic in this part of the A27 Corridor made to flow much more smoothly, if a new semi on line route consisting of a wide single carriageway road was constructed, with a new bridge over the railway line along the line of the previously proposed Purple Route.  The saving from the construction costs at Arundel could then be invested in improvements at Worthing, to enable the necessary goods vehicles to access the A259 to feed the supermarkets and other out of town shopping and industrial facilities on the coastal belt.
• It is interesting to see that according to HE’s South Coast Central Route Strategy summary of Key opportunities ... HE do also note that the A259 acts as alternative route to the A27 through Littlehampton.

Philip Gadsby the blog author also reported on Reasons to journey between Worthing and Chichester:

The way that people shop has also changed dramatically between 2002 and 2015, many town centres are really sad reflections of their former glories, many people either shop on line or go to retail parks.

If one looks at the A259 between West Worthing and South of Chichester, it is interesting to see how many opportunities optimised for car users there are.

Type	Location	Comment
ASDA	Ferring	Major Supermarket
Haskins Roundstone Garden Centre	Roundstone	Garden Centre with other retail units
Sainsbury	Angmering	Major Supermarket
Rustington Retail Park	Angmering	Pets at Home, Halfords, Dunelm
Services Area	Body Shop Roundabout	Shell Petrol, Travelodge and Burger King.
Morrisons	Junction of A259 and A284 at Wick	Major Supermarket, with petrol station
Tesco	Littlehampton	Major Supermarket, with petrol station
Currys and Wickes	Arun Retail Park	Near Tesco
Rowan Way Retail Park	Halfords, Lidl, Matalan, Bensons for Beds, Dreams	At junction A259 and A29
Retail Parks and Industrial Parks	Just south of this retail park on the dual carriageway A29	Sainsbury, Tesco, M&S Food, Pets at Home, B&Q, Next, Kwik Fit and many others
Honda and Mercedes Motor Dealers, Garden Centres	A259 Bognor to Chichester	Major Dealerships and with large parking areas.
A number of trading estates	A259 /A27 Junction

 

There are many other industrial developments with direct access to the A259 between West Worthing and Chichester.

If on the other hand one travels from Chichester to Worthing on the A27, the following amenities are available.

Type	Location	Comment
Esso petrol station	Tangmere	On other carriageway
Jump Racing Course	Fontwell	Also hosts car boot sales
Services Area	Fontwell	Shell Garage, Little Chef and Travelodge
White Swan Pub	West of Arundel	Good parking
Hotel	Arundel	Arundel Park Hotel
Arundel Station	Arundel	Difficult to turn East out of
Hotel and Public House	Crossbush	Premier Inn and Beefeater
Services Area	Crossbush	Comfort Inn, McDonald’s and BP Service Station
Light Industrial Estate	Poling	The Vinery, on other carriageway
Public House	Hammerpot	The Woodman Arms
Garage and Wood Yard	Hammerpot	Garage no longer serves fuel, on other carriageway

 

Reviewing the evidence of economic activity along the two road corridors from West Worthing to Chichester it is apparent that the A27 is a good route if you want to find a hotel, fill your vehicle with fuel or have a pint of beer, traveling down the A259 on the other hand enables you to shop at a variety of nationally branded supermarkets, purchase new cars and car parts, purchase beds, pet food and DIY equipment.  There also opportunities to fill your car with petrol at a number of places including the supermarkets and there are public houses and fast food outlets at various locations.

The facilities in the A27 it is true to say have not materially changed since the SoCOMMs work on traffic volumes was done.  The Hammerpot Garage at that time may have been serving petrol, the facilities on the A259 have materially changed, there are at least two new major supermarkets on the route, ASDA and Morrisons.  Sainsbury’s at Rustington and Tesco at Littlehampton have both been modernised and expanded.  There is a new large Sainsbury on the A29 in Bognor as well as a modernised Tesco within a few hundred yards.

Most of the goods and materials arranged for sale at the outlets on the A259 come from outside West Sussex and require goods vehicles to deliver them to the stores.  The main arteries used to deliver these goods from the north and M25 would either be the M23 or the A24, access to the A259 would in most cases be achieved from the A27/A280 junction at Clapham, the A280 links directly with the A259 at the end of the Roundstone Bypass.  Travelling from the West it would be logical to either use the A259 to Bognor from Chichester or possibly to go to Fontwell and use the A29 to approach the north of Bognor Regis.

The logistical needs of these “out of town” developments are very important to factor into any transport planning scenario.  It will be recalled that the SoCoMMs study stated that the amount of through traffic on the A27 in West Sussex was low.  The two paragraphs below are from The Final Report South Coast Corridor Multi-Modal Study, August 2002:

• The Car: the average car journey is less than 25km and very little interaction occurs between towns more than 50km apart. As documented above, serious congestion occurs in peak periods on the approaches to towns and cities corridor-wide. Congestion can be correlated closely with a number of bottlenecks within the sub-regional highway network.
• Freight: with notable exceptions, such as Southampton Port, most freight movements are by road and are generally between the study area and other parts of the UK on a north-south axis. There are not currently, nor are there projected to be, major east-west movements of freight within the corridor.

These two paragraphs are still very valid.  The congestion experienced at times through Chichester, Arundel and Worthing can all be traced to bottlenecks in the sub regional highway network and there is very little evidence of the A27 being used as a through trunk route for freight.