New delivery road planned at Chichester's Discovery Retail Park

The Brookhouse Group Limited, which owns the Homebase store in Discovery Retail Park, has just submitted plans to Chichester District Council to create a new vehicle access at the back of the store, leading from Westhampnett Road.

It said that as well as separating public and service traffic, the plans would also enable the store to make ‘better and more flexible’ use of the parking and outside areas at the side and back of the store.

No changes would be made to the existing buildings.

Currently all service traffic shares a single entrance off Barnfield Drive, with lorries having to go through the main car park to reach the delivery yard – a practice which has been in place since the store was first built in 2002.

Ratcliffe Groves Partnership, which submitted plans on behalf of the Brookhouse Group, said: “This lack of separation is clearly an unsatisfactory arrangement from a basic safety viewpoint.

“There are further issues of standing lorries obstructing the car park circulation and being unable to pass each other.

“These works to the service areas are the latest phase in a long-term programme to generally upgrade the park, in this instance giving better public safety by separating out the service traffic.

“This will help ensure the commercial health and vitality of the park.”