Flansham residents warn of major road gridlocks

The inhabitants of historic Hoe Lane are set to have the eastern junction to the eastern section of the A259 relief road created about 200m south of their existing link with the main road.

The new road will curve south of their properties to serve the proposed new estate of 700 homes before sweeping north over the Lidsey Rife and the railway line to meet the A29 at Oldlands Farm in North Bersted.

Hoe Lane resident Andrew Burns said: 'There are many aspects of the new development that are a huge disappointment to us residents.

'But the siting of the roundabout is by far the runaway winner.

'It has always seemed completely bizarre to us that the roundabout is not being sited at the entrance to Flansham Park where there must be 2,000-3,000 properties as opposed to about 40 in Hoe Lane.

'Under this scheme how is anybody going to exit on to the A259 from Flansham Park?

'They are certainly never going to turn right with three roads exiting off the roundabout towards Bognor.

'All that is going to happen is that the residents will back track on to the Middleton Road and try and exit at the mini roundabout by the garage and Southdowns pub. It's busy enough now. It will be totally gridlocked during the rush hour and school times.'

The relief road and its four roundabouts '“ two at either end and two in the middle '“ was given planning permission by Arun District Council last month.

Council planning officer Stephen Cantwell said the outline permission for the development, including the siting of the roundabouts on the relief road was granted by the government in November 2006.

This followed the approval by a planning inspector after a public inquiry into a development masterplan which featured the location of the roundabout the south of Hoe Lane.

The county council had raised no objection to the proposed position. He added: 'The county council is working with Felpham Parish Council to consider further the likely impacts of the development on the local road network and evolve plans to manage traffic flows where appropriate. '