Our Chair, Councillor Keith Glazier, and the Leader of West Sussex County Council, Councillor Paul Marshall, have written jointly to the Secretary of State for Transport to raise their concerns following the government decision to cancel planned improvements to the A27 and offer their support in working with the Government to find a solution to problems on the A27.

The open letter from Councillor Paul Marshall and Councillor Keith Glazier invites the Rt Hon Louise Haigh MP to see first-hand why the road is so important to our communities.

The A27 is a strategically important route that links towns and cities along the Sussex and Hampshire coast. It has long been considered sub-standard and unreliable, suffering specifically from congestion at Chichester, Arundel and Worthing, as well as to the east of Lewes.

The letter outlines the leaders’ concerns that the decision to cancel the A27 improvement schemes will further harm opportunities for growth across the Sussex region and impact on local businesses and trade in the region.

The A27’s ongoing congestion and safety issues have long been a priority for local businesses, who consistently cite improvements to the road as essential for boosting productivity and supporting housing development.

The letter outlines the leaders’ offer of support to the Secretary of State to find a solution for the A27, which ensures this corridor continues to support economic growth in Sussex and the South East.

Cllr Keith Glazier said: “The A27 is a key strategic route connecting people, businesses, and freight across the South East. The problems on the A27 still remain, which is why Transport for the South East would welcome the opportunity to work with the Secretary of State to develop a solution for the whole corridor.

Improvements to the A27 are central to delivering TfSE’s Transport Strategy and Strategic Investment Plan. By improving the A27, we can accelerate economic growth across the South East, better connect people to employment, healthcare, and leisure, and give communities healthier streets, with more opportunities for buses and active travel.”

Cllr Paul Marshall said: “Although the majority of the A27 issues are situated in West Sussex, the continued failure to tackle serious congestion at bottlenecks along the route has significant impacts across Sussex and the wider sub-region. Residents and businesses alike have been kept waiting for a solution for far too long.

“Previous schemes were considered by the government to not provide value for money, however the ongoing issues seen along the route will not go away without significant investment and development.

“As a council, we are committed to generating a sustainable and prosperous economy for West Sussex, which is why I’m urging the Secretary of State to look at alternative solutions that will provide a real and lasting improvement to the A27 corridor.”

A copy of the letter in full is included below.

Dear Secretary of State,

Re: A27 schemes

We are writing in relation to the A27 in West Sussex.

The A27 is a strategically important corridor linking the Brighton and Solent city regions. It is the only orbital route in the South East south of the M25 and the principal East-West route for the South Coast, linking Portsmouth and Southampton with Brighton and ultimately Dover. It has consistently been considered sub-standard, unreliable and impacts on business productivity. It specifically suffers from capacity constraints at Chichester, Arundel and Worthing in addition to pressure East of Lewes.

Successive technical studies over many years, most recently the DfT A27 Corridor Feasibility Study (2015), have identified a strategic need to improve the A27 to provide better connectivity between cities, facilitate economic growth, and address regional inequality. The area is environmentally and physically constrained by the South Downs National Park and English Channel, which significantly limit the options available for strategic-scale improvements.

Every day, users of the A27 find themselves stuck in long queues at Arundel, Chichester, and Worthing & Lancing or choose to divert along less suitable routes, including through protected landscapes. As the Sussex coast is increasingly developed to meet the Government’s ambitions for more housing, these issues are forecast to get worse and local improvements will not tackle the significant problems faced by the region. That is why we have worked with National Highways in recent years to develop strategic improvements to address these issues whilst also protecting the environment.

Whilst we recognise the overall financial pressure the Government faces, we were very disappointed that opportunities to significantly improve the A27 corridor have been cancelled at Arundel and Worthing & Lancing (in addition to the Chichester scheme that was cancelled in 2017). The significant pressure on this corridor remains and will stifle opportunities to facilitate growth, housebuilding and inward investment. We hope that information about why this disappointing decision was made by the Government will be published at the earliest opportunity.

The decision to cancel the A27 schemes means local stakeholders must continue to live with a part of the Strategic Road Network that is unfit to fulfil its strategic role. As you note yourself, Britain’s transport network is grinding to a halt and the A27, as it currently stands, supports this view.

A27 improvements are priorities in TfSE’s Transport Strategy and Strategic Investment Plan. We want to work with the Government to find a solution to this problem, it will not go away. We are also keen to explore the opportunity for private investment to support strategic improvements to the A27, alongside major local schemes. This Government has expressed its desire to attract private investment and recognising the pressures on public finances we believe there is merit in exploring, in parallel, a mixed funding case for the A27.

We would like to invite you to the Transport for the South East region to show you first hand why the A27 is so important to our communities and explore how we bring about change to the decades of underinvestment in this corridor. We would like you to support our collective ambition to grow our economy and grow the contribution the South East makes to our national economy.

Yours sincerely,

Cllr Paul Marshall
Leader 
West Sussex County Council

Cllr Keith Glazier
Chair
Transport for the South East