We’ve heavily criticised Highways England’s proposals for the A27 at Arundel, announced today at the start of an 8 week consultation which ends on 24 October. Highways England is consulting on six options, only two of which it can afford to build (p28, consultation document). All of the schemes are highly damaging to the South Downs National Park or surrounding landscapes and all would increase traffic and carbon emissions.
We’re calling for the public money set aside for an Arundel bypass to be reallocated for improved public transport, walking and cycling infrastructure and on a cheaper on-line single carriageway mini-bypass which would avoid the key bottlenecks.
Henri Brocklebank, chair of SCATE (Director of Conservation at Sussex Wildlife Trust) said: “We would question having a consultation on options, most of which are unaffordable. Only two of the six options are within Highways England’s budget and all are highly damaging. We need them to go back to the drawing board and come back with something sensible.”
Brenda Pollack, vice-chair of SCATE (Friends of the Earth South East campaigner) said: “Highways England appear to live in a parallel universe. We have a climate emergency and new challenging carbon reduction targets, yet they are proposing to increase traffic and carbon emissions with these proposals. We need schemes that reduce traffic to meet our climate targets whilst protecting nature.”
Kia Trainor, vice-chair of SCATE (director of CPRE Sussex) said: “We are appalled at the dismissive way Highways England treats the alternatives to road building. They completely fail to consider the improvements that could be achieved in bus and rail if the budget for the road was spent on these forms of transport instead. Investing the money in a different way would safeguard the countryside and allow people a better quality of life.”
SCATE is advocating that people respond to the consultation opposing all six options on the suggested following grounds:
- All options will increase carbon emissions and make it harder to meet legal target of net-zero carbon by 2050
- Don’t believe there is a need for the capacity on the A27 – future traffic projections have nearly always overestimated demand (and we actually need to see traffic reduction)
- Want the money invested in sustainable transport instead and a cheaper, less damaging road (the Arundel Alternative) avoiding the current bottlenecks
- Will destroy ancient woodland and harm the South Downs National Park
Email your objection to Highways England at: A27ArundelBypass@
Or you can fill in the online questionnaire where we would recommend selecting ‘do nothing’ and then adding in the comment box that you support a 40mph wide single carriageway between Crossbush and Ford roundabout (the Arundel Alternative) instead.