I write to express my comments on The Local Plan - Preferred Approach

I have lived in West Wittering on the Manhood Peninsula for the last 19 years.
The Manhood Peninsula is a unique area which relies heavily on tourism, agriculture and horticulture; within its boundaries lie the Chichester Harbour Area of Outstanding Beauty (ANOB) and the Pagham Harbour Local Nature Reserve (LNR).
It has only 2 main access roads leading to the A.27.

While I have huge sympathy for the CDC being dictated to by the Government in relation to how many houses, retail units and commercial development they wish to see built, they do not take into consideration the countryside they want it built on.

Therefore I cannot support your view of the way forward (up to the year 2035) as being manageable or workable.

The one massive sticking point is the A.27 itself. I believe there is a considered view that the A.27 in its present form and the proposed northern route round Chichester (2016) is unworkable and unaffordable - the present southern route being unworkable and the northern route unaffordable.
The proposed spur road AL6 (which is Option 3 from the 2016 consultation which was dismissed as it was admitted the road would have to be upgraded to a dual carriage way within 12 years to cope with the increased traffic) from the Tesco's roundabout to link with the A.286 via a roundabout would merely push the traffic south and cause further havoc = eg: cars wanting to access the new Chichester Free School would have to then drive across Wophams Lane, through Hunston to the school, both roads are narrow and are not capable of coping with a huge flow of traffic. Those roads are already used by locals who wish to avoid the congestion on the A.27.

Once upon a time there were traffic lights on the A.27, these were removed and replaced with roundabouts, now you propose to put back traffic lights at the Stockbridge and Whyke roundabouts with no right turn if you are driving in a west - east direction. I have heard the cost to be in the region of £80 million pounds, money you do not have. Just leave the A.27 alone until someone with a vision of the future needs of Chichester has the guts to implement a northern route.


I quote 2 reasons why: An accident on the A.286 on 2nd February 2019 closed the road for 5 hours; a cyclist was killed on 10th May 2018 the A.27 was closed for approx 9 hours. The surrounding roads and Chichester were gridlocked.

The minimum number of houses the CDC proposes to build are: the Manhood 1,933, an east-west corridor of 10,056, with a token number of 489 for north of the area plan make no allowances for the inadequate number of police, doctors, schools and transport we already have in place. The East Wittering's Medical Centre had listed over 10,300 patients registered in 2018 - where is the provision for more medical centres?
All these extra houses will have at least one car per family, reality says two cars; how on earth is the A.27 going to cope with these larger numbers when it cannot cope with today's numbers?

The A.27 is the crux of the problem - get that sorted; then the CDC will have a mandate for the future.