There was zoom meeting on Mon 19^th held by HE re the Chem route, I can only think I was invited because I am a parish councillor on the route, I could not see everyone who was there. There were some other councillors from other councils.

For some reason we were asked not to discuss it until Thurs so I didn’t but on checking it is now Thurs! They did not say what time!

It was a presentation on zoom along the lines of ‘next slide please’ with comical delays. Seemingly they guy doing the talking did not have the slide some lady somewhere else was doing it, either she kept nodding off or she had a snail running her internet.

In brief the proposal is what they called, ‘continuous shared use path’ with ‘options’ for more experienced cyclist to stay on the road, speed reductions and traffic calming. They were adamant that A259 remains route B for A27 in the event of accident or road works.

They said no existing infrastructure would be moved, so no poles/lampposts/BT boxes etc etc they would just do ‘work arounds’ or bodge it as my grandfather would have said! -They did not say that!

So, nothing new, the pictures they showed looked nice but when you know the route unworkable as a ‘continuous’ route. The pictures looked like one of those rugs children have looking like a street scene, scale of vehicle is mostly irrelevant you just drive over things if you cannot turn! We still have our son’s one, I am thinking HE have one in their office for sure!

At question time (which was limited) one gentleman asked what about maintenance of foliage, this was a great question as we would all be shoved in the hedge and hedges do what hedges do and grow, this question was swept under the carpet which is ironic as they don’t sweep the path.

I questioned their use of ‘continuous path’ I said it is not CP if you must keep looking in every driveway for cars coming out with drivers still fiddling with radio/phone/coffee/makeup etc, I see this every morning. They said ‘drivers must give way’.  ‘But they don’t’ ‘But they should’  I thinking an epitaph ‘The car should have given way’.

East of the subway, where clay lane meets whatever, the road is called behind Tesco? They plan to change the priority here, so cars don’t have to give way and cyclist do………..why because someone was knocked of their bike here??? So you give priority to the offender not the victim??

East of the Tesco bridge, out came the broom and the carpet ‘this will be dealt with under a different project, we stop at the (Inadequate) bridge.

A misery bucket of an hour drizzled in false/ill informed ideas.

As I say typed in great haste, hope it makes some sense, keep your eyes out for the official line, be ready for a fight.

I suspect it will happen whatever we say.

Any questions please ask.

All the best

Jonathan