Worthing’s MPs demand full transparency on costings to A27 improvements following meeting at Westminster with head of Highways England

Worthing MPs Tim Loughton and Sir Peter Bottomley have written to Highways England Chief Executive Jim O'Sullivan demanding full transparency on the costing of improvements to the A27 following a meeting with him in Westminster and reiterated the fact that the funding allocated is not sufficient to ensure there is an approporiate solution to the over congestion.

In an extract from their letter, the MPs write:

“We have stated repeatedly that the real problem [with proposed A27 improvements] was the amount of funding identified by the Department for Transport, putting impossible constraints on achieving any meaningful solution.

“When this ‘envelope’ of around £60-80m is compared with the £260m estimate of what is likely to be provided at Arundel, many of our constituents understandably question why the busier stretch of the road in Worthing and Adur has been allocated only around a quarter.

“It is essential that as much information as possible is made available to our constituents so that a proper assessment can be made of exactly the scale of the challenges faced and how problematic and/or costly coming up with an appropriate solution actually is.”

The Worthing MPs have also met the Roads Minister Jesse Norman and will be seeing the Secretary of State for Transport, Chris Grayling again when further details are published.