Comet Corner traffic fear over crematorium

The parish council's development control committee members said they believed overwhelming evidence existed to decline the proposal.

They made their decision at last week's meeting and have sent it to Arun District Council.

Arun will decide the application by Mercia Crematoria Ltd to build the 1.5m single storey crematorium on land off Bilsham Road.

The facility would be designed to handle an average of five services on weekdays and one on Saturdays.

But Middleton Parish Council's clerk, David Allsopp, said the committee considered that the site was completely unacceptable from a traffic viewpoint because of its proximity to the Comet Corner junction.

It had been accepted by Arun District Council and the joint western area committee of various councillors that the B2132/A259 junction was dangerous and needed improving.

'Local statistics confirm that accidents continue to happen at the junction and they will continue to do so until either traffic signals or a roundabout are installed,' he stated.

'The issue at Comet Corner is simple. The more vehicles which use the A259 the less time is available for vehicles to pull out of Bilsham Road and Yapton Road to the south.

'The proposal to add slow moving funeral corteges to the mix is pure folly.'

Most corteges would travel along the A259 from Bognor Regis and Littlehampton to reach the crematorium, he stated.

He continued: 'That will slow down existing traffic and require all the vehicles to do at least one dangerous right turn at Comet Corner.

'Undoubtedly, a proportion of the drivers will be distressed by having to attend a funeral for loved ones.

'Any lapse of their concentration while trying to negotiate Comet Corner could have unforeseeen consequences.'

A traffic survey in 2003 showed the A259 traffic passing the junction was 29.4 vehicles a minute in the morning and 23 vehicles each minute in the afternoon.

Added to this concern was the choice of agricultural land for the crematorium. At least three brownfield sites, free of flood risk, were identified by Mercia and should be used instead, he stated.

'It is of further concern that, if this application is permitted, it will set a precedent, and it is likely that further substantive commercial or residential developments will be submitted on adjacent agricultural land,' he added.

Mercia claims that users of the crematorium will add little traffic to the number using Comet Corner. Their vehicles will also be outside peak hours.

The land identified was the only suitable location from a long list of those considered, the company maintained.