Petition: Storrington traffic: concerns about congestion, pollution and road safety

We, the undersigned residents of Storrington district, call on West Sussex County Council to carry out a comprehensive traffic management study throughout Storrington, covering the impacts of traffic volumes, road safety and air pollution.

We further call on WSCC

• to consider and/or review very carefully its response to any significant residential, business or retail proposals or planning applications that would increase traffic and pollution levels in Storrington;

• to defer responding with formal comments on such planning applications until a remedial village traffic management plan has been adopted and implemented by both WSCC and Horsham District Council.

Background information

The levels of traffic in Storrington are unacceptably high and increasing. Storrington is suffering serious congestion and pollution. An Air Quality Management Area has already been declared throughout the village. It revealed that pollution on the School Hill/Manley’s Hill roundabout was up to 40% above safe level in 2009. Road safety, particularly at the mini-roundabout, is another vital issue that needs to be addressed urgently.
It is time for the Highways Authority to implement remedial measures to relieve these unacceptable pressures on the village environment. More immediately, action must be taken to stop matters deteriorating further. But development proposals in the pipeline, if given the go-ahead, are likely to make an already bad situation considerably worse. That is plainly wrong.

Sign petition

The Council says:

Dear Mr Westrip, This petition was debated at a meeting of the County Council's Strategic Environmental Services Select Committee on Wednesday 14 March 2012. Following its debate, the Committee resolved: Having considered the petition submitted by Storrington residents and the submissions from their representative at the meeting today, and noting that the Chanctonbury CLC has agreed to put forward a traffic management study for Storrington as one of its priorities in its local infrastructure plan for inclusion in the Integrated Works Programme 2013-14, to request the Cabinet Member: (i) to incorporate the work required for the study as a priority in the Integrated Works Programme for 2013-14 and, to that end, to identify funding to allow the study (and/or any preparatory work required) to take place; but also, (ii) to explore with Horsham District Council and the developers, the extent to which highways improvements in Storrington might be funded from community infrastructure levy, and/or other contributions under planning agreements, relating to the proposed Waitrose development; (iii) to investigate whether a potential contribution by the County Council to the funding of the A27 Arundel bypass might accelerate the implementation of that scheme by the government with a view to alleviating congestion in locations such as Storrington; and, to record its full support for all the interested parties continuing to work together to find a solution to the problems. Yours sincerely, Robin Davison Principal Democratic Services Officer