LETTER: Silly season on the A27

While awaiting full and clear details of the A27 proposed routes, now scheduled for early March, we seem to be in a brief silly season of speculation and dubious supposed influence.

Firstly, to the delight, I am sure, of the Chichester Deserves Better brigade, we had Stirling Moss wheeled out, much to the amusement of the rest of the community.

It just might be something to do with the Festival of Speed and the man in charge...

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Now we have Keith Taylor, Green MEP for the South of England, who totally unsurprisingly has come out against the northern bypass route proposals. Well, he would, wouldn’t he?

Enough of this famous names nonsense and let us largely disregard these out-of-towners who probably have very limited local knowledge and let us deal with the people who really count.

I refer of course to the local inhabitants as a whole and not just a vocal minority.

Many hundreds if not thousands of these people suffer the daily tribulations of trying to negotiate the A27 by pass along with the countless lorry and coach drivers travelling east to west and reverse.

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They are joined by the countless holiday makers and of course local commuters.

The Newbury By-pass had its objectors as did the Brighton By-pass and now you would be hard pressed to find anyone who thinks they are any other than quite excellent, and incidentally a joy to drive along.

The answer for Chichester is obviously the northern route with just one major flyover/roundabout between Lavant and north Chichester compared to five on an upgrade of the present southern by-pass.

The result? A smooth flow of traffic east west and on the current southern by-pass a reduction of traffic by approximately 50 per cent. Sanity restored.

Mark Neave

Summer Place

Runcton

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