CDC Planning Committee 27th April
The Masterplan for the new development was considered by the CDC planning committee on 27th.
Amongst others, your chairman addressed the meeting on the concerns of local residents about the increased traffic which will be generated both by the 1600 new houses and 6 hectares of industrial units, but also from the outset by construction vehicles routed through the Westgate Roundabout, Orchard Street and St Paul’s Road. It is also likely that some will take a short cut up Sherborne Road across our other roundabout.
After 2 hours of debate the Councillor from Tangmere put forward an amendment:
“For the avoidance of doubt nothing in the foregoing para (1) relates to the scale or design of any off-site or site-external access works except that it is expected that the southern vehicle access onto Westgate will be provided for public use prior to the commencement of works for the 751st dwelling or any part of Phase 2.”
Nobody really understands this, but the outcome is that the Southern Access Road from the Cathedral Way Roundabout, which will remove all the traffic from the ring road, will not be built until Phase 2, probably after 2026. Indeed, there is a risk that it will never be built, leaving Chichester permanently with an even worse traffic problem than now.
The Masterplan, with the amendment, was passed on the casting vote of the meeting Chairman.
Campaign
Your Committee, in association with other local Resident’s Associations are planning a campaign to make the public aware of the situation.
The next stage in the planning process will be for the CDC Planning Committee to consider the outline planning proposal, which will FIX the details of the road layout probably at the July meeting. Keep an eye on the CDC website. Vectos, the developers’ traffic consultants, have produced a new set of plans for the two roundabouts and Westgate itself.
These are available on the CDC website: https://publicaccess.chichester.gov.uk/online-applications/applicationDetails.do?activeTab=documents&keyVal=NH1LX5EROY000
The WGRA Traffic Advisory Group think they are an improvement on the previous ones and they are in line with the suggestions from WSCC highways Dept. The most extreme is to remove the roundabout at the A286 junction (Ave. De Chartres/ West Street/ Orchard Street) and install traffic lights. We believe this will not work unless other work and the building of the Southern Access Road stop the through traffic (rat running), otherwise there will be tailbacks along Westgate. We are not completely happy about the proposals and have sent detailed comments to the Highways Manager.
