Pulborough residents call on county highways chiefs to speed up reopening of A29

The road has been shut for more than two months following a landslide.

Residents travelled to Chichester today (March 6) to raise awareness with county councillors attending a Highways scrutiny meeting of the devastating effects on the 10-week closure of the road.

They held up placards and handed out leaflets with the words ‘SOS Pulborough’ warning of the dire consequences of failing to open the A29 quickly with businesses failing and safety concerns on local roads with HGVs using them as cut throughs.

Resident Jane Mote said: “West Sussex County Council came to Pulborough and the key councillors did not speak so we decided we would go to them to ask for more support to speed up the reopening of this vital road.

"We were pleased that many councillors and the main highways officer stopped to listen to our concerns but disappointed that Councillor Joy Dennis, who has cabinet responsibilities for highways, didn’t engage with us and did not address our issues in the meeting.”

Len Ellis-Brown, who was part of the group petitioning the meeting, said: “We need a lot more answers than we are getting about why there has been such a long delay in reaching an agreement with landowners, whether enough money has been spent trying to get to a solution and why there hasn’t been an effective response to improving

diversion routes.”

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Labour County Councillor Brian Quinn attempted to raise concerns about the lack of action so far to fix the A29 and the poor communication during the Communities, Environment and Highways Scrutiny Committee but he was cut short.

Conservative Councillor Joy Dennis, cabinet member for highways, denied that there was a problem with communications and told the meeting she was hopeful of a breakthrough with the A29 work:

“There has been plenty of communication with a public meeting last week. We are in sensitive negotiations, and I would not want to put that at risk by commenting. We are

working constantly to get the A29 back up and running and we do see a light at the end of the tunnel. Officers are on site with a view to imminent workings.”