Complacent Politicians Happy To Let Traffic Strangle West Sussex

Complacent Politicians Happy To Let Traffic Strangle West Sussex.

Let’s Challenge These Useless Timeservers By Standing Against Them.
Demand Money To Link Shoreham To Chichester By Motorway.
And Boost Rail Network With Brighton-Portsmouth Express.

“The A27 liberation movement would cost a lot of money, but there is a lot of that about in West Sussex”

The latest proposals to improve the A27 around Arundel are yet another time-wasting sticking plaster.

Our local politicians don’t understand the problem is much bigger than this. We demand a motorway linking the west of Shoreham to the west of Chichester. No bits and pieces solutions please.

The Arundel proposal also contains the seeds of its own destruction with its concession that ancient woodlands will have to be sacrificed. If the politicians had a grip on our demands, they would tunnel under it or bridge over it. This structure will be with us for maybe 200 years, so let’s do it right.

I recently reminded myself of the chronic local roads problem with a trip to the Isle of Wight from Findon, which on the outward Sunday leg included the now standard 30-minute wait queuing to get off the A27 and filter around Arundel.

Then the usual mayhem on the Chichester bypass – on a Sunday, around midday. Outrageous; but normal. Luckily, I didn’t start my journey in Lancing. Getting across Worthing on the area’s main road, which laughably carries an “A” prefix before 27, would have added another 30 minutes of frustration.

Can you imagine what tourists must make of this? And van, truck and business drivers when this happens during the week, as it inevitably does?

They will be saying to themselves; what kind of people allow this to happen to them year in, year out. How can I avoid coming back to this area ever again. What kind of politicians represent West Sussex where such blood pressure inducing chaos is the norm?

Politicians in safe seats, that’s who.

New Party
And there’s only one way to bring this to an end after upwards of 50 years of suffering from unfulfilled promises. Challenge them in parliamentary and local elections. When a few of these useless timeservers begin to worry that the game is up, that’s when we might see some action.

The only way to do this is to start a new party. I realize that this isn’t a route paved with much success, but I think local citizens will respond to a call for action because so many of them find their daily lives are being ruined. The campaign would seek a continuous motorway from Shoreham to the west of Chichester. This will cost a lot of money, say critics. I say that this work will last for maybe 200 years, so the cost per year will be easily found. It will damage the green belt say others. No it won’t if you tunnel under Worthing or launch a viaduct over the town. If you doubt my idea, “google” the Viaduct at Millau, in southern France.  It can be done.

Fast train to Portsmouth
To make sure the campaign had general appeal, I would also include a demand to improve the local rail services. Why aren’t there regular express trains from Brighton to Portsmouth and Southampton and Southampton Airport? Why is the service slowed down by numerous level crossings? Replace them all with bridges or underpasses. That should have been done 100 years ago. Why aren’t there track improvements to allow Brighton-Shoreham-Worthing-Chichester-Portsmouth express services, and a non-stop in say 30 minutes? It is truly shameful that during this long controversy over improving the A27 road network nobody has thought to at least uprate the rail services. And while we’re about it, let’s reopen the Shoreham-Horsham line.

That would cost very little money compared with the road programme, would not require much in the way of new land, and the investment would look even better when compared with the pitiful road network.

“Not one new house in West Sussex until you can drive on a motorway from Brighton to Portsmouth”.
The A27 liberation movement would cost a lot of money, but there is a lot of that about in West Sussex, so perhaps a public spirited benefactor will stand up and be counted, lead the movement with a cash injection, which would then rely on crowd-funding to push the project along.

And I will add another demand. We keep hearing about how Britain needs hundreds of thousands of new houses to cater for the millions of immigrants who have landed in Britain this century. West Sussex is expected to do its bit towards this, but this will only completely overwhelm the infrastructure.

So here is my final demand. Not one new house in West Sussex until you can drive on a motorway from Brighton to Portsmouth. Or take the train in 30 minutes. 

I’m too old to do much more than cheer from the sidelines. Surely there are a few Sussex stalwarts who can take up the case and shame our local representatives into action. Finally.