Residents'joy overplanned crossing

The 120 occupants of the Poplars Residential Park are to have a crossing created outside its entrance on the A29 Shripney Road.

West Sussex County Council will spend about 5,000 installing a 2m wide tarmac footway through the raised central reservation which divides the main road's dual carriageways.

Dropped kerbs will also be put in on either side of the road.

The improvements will enable the residents, many of them aged over 60, to more easily catch the bus services into Bognor Regis town centre which pass along the A29. The bus stop is on the eastern side of the road four lanes of traffic away from their homes.

Work on the crossing will take place by the end of next March. One of the residents, Eileen Harvey, said everyone was already looking forward to the installation being completed.

'We are absolutely delighted that we have persuaded the county council to flatten the central reservation to make it safer for us to cross the busy A29 to catch the bus in town,' she stated.

She helped to organise a petition of more than a hundred names to call for the crossing to be put in.

Arun district councillor Ann Smee, one of the Bersted members, worked with the residents to achieve their success after she became aware of their plight during canvassing for May's local elections.

She commented: 'The residents felt isolated and vulnerable trying to manoeuvre through a raised grass area on the central reservation, while negotiating this busy dual carriageway.

'The majority of residents have their bus passes and are now looking forward to journeys as far afield as Brighton and Portsmouth.'

But Eileen said there was one challenge still waiting to be tackled by herself and her neighbours.

'What we would now like, of course, is a more regular bus service instead of the 75 minutes as it is now,' she added.