Progress on Petworth pedestrian crossing idea for A272

Petworth Town Council wants to create a pelican crossing on the A272 near the Silvia Beaufoy car park to improve road safety for sports ground users, students and residents.

On Tuesday last week, members of the North Chichester County Local Committee agreed to progress the plans for design and consultation.

County councillor Janet Duncton, who put forward the motion as member for Petworth, said: “I will be very happy when it goes out to consultation and hopefully it gets support from the local people.

“All these things take time so the quicker we can get moving on it the better it will be.”

She said costings, listed as £80,000 by the committee, were still an estimate.

The scheme, which has been put forward by the town council as a community highways initiative, is now set to be designed in 2019/20 and delivered from 20/21 onwards, subject to budget and feasibility.

Tuesday’s decision was nonetheless heartening for town councillor Jim Scallon, who said the crossing was particularly important given the new 25-year lease on the sports ground and the bus stop.

He said: “When buses stop with children going to Midhurst Rother College, there’s no crossing for them and there’s no pavement on one side of the road.

“And then, of course, there’s all the other users of Petworth Park and the sports ground.

“But the main issue is to get a safe crossing for children.”

He added that the crossing still had to be designed and the eventual consultation stage would include questions to residents on where exactly the crossing should be located to be more effective.

So far, he said the idea had plenty of support, including backing in principle from the primary school, Midhurst Rother College, the sports ground, the Silvia Beaufoy Centre and the Petworth Vision.

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