Phase2 West of Chichester Outline Application Disregards Walking and Cycling National Standards
Although the outline application plans include some provisions or walking and cycling, cycle routes to the West of the city will be made unusable or extremely inconvenient to ride at a number of key locations. This will break the connection of National Cycle Route No2 (South Coast Cycle Route) through the west of the city. This will end cycling aa practical, convenient form of transit in the west of Chichester and along the coast to Fishbourne and Bosham.
Quiet roads that currently provide safe space to support National Cycle Routes and enabling school and college students to commute, will be converted into roads carrying heavy traffic into the heart of residential city neighbourhoods.
Feedback given by the community has been ignored. Cyclists and pedestrians will be expected to share unsuitable pavements despite reassurances from West Sussex County Council that alternative provision would be made available in the road for safe cycling.
To access the planning application documents it is possible to do a search using the Chichester District Council website link available here: https://publicaccess.chichester.gov.uk/online-applications/search.do?action=simple&searchType=Application
Search terms that help locate the application using this search tool are as follows:
Reference 22/01485/OUTEIA
Alternative Reference PP-11131031
Application Received Wed 08 Jun 2022
ChiCycle are concerned over the applications departure from national guidelines/standards for walking and cycling. Our primary concern is the introduction of heavy traffic from the Southern Access Road onto Westgate and the relocation of cyclists onto unsuitable pavements. This will result in an undesirable increase in motor vehicle traffic on previously quiet residential streets and make it impractical for many people to walk and cycle this route.
A PDF file of the 22/01485/OUTEIA plans for the Southern Access Road, as it joins Westgate, is available on the following link
22_01485_OUTEIA-SOUTHERN_ACCESS_ROAD_GENERAL_ARRANGEMENT-4797983
It appears WSCC officers mislead residents during Infrastructure Steering Group discussions for the First Phase of the West of Chichester Development!
In particular Steven Shaw, who is West Sussex County Council County Highways (Development Management) Team Manager, assured both Westgate Residents and ChiCycle that the substandard shared pavements proposed as part of Phase 1 at the Sherborne/Westgate mini roundabout would only carry a small minority of cyclists. It was implied that additional measures would enable the majority of cyclists to ride safely and confidently in the roadway. This has proved to be an empty promise! No recognisable provision apears to be provided for making riding in the roadway meet national standards for cycling LTN1/20.
An example of the community being mislead by council officer Steven Shaw, where he claims that only a minority of cyclists will ride on the pavements, is available on the following link.
Details of why it is highly undesirable for cyclists to ride on the pavements around the Sherborne/Westgate roundabout are available on the following link.:
ChiCycle began a legal action over the injustice this would cause to vulnerable pedestrians.
On the 23rd Dec 2022 the Judicial Review Pre-Action Protocol Letter and Statement of Facts and Grounds were sent to tro.team@westsussex.gov.uk & rebecca.caney@westsussex.gov.uk
More details are available on the following link:
Funding for Legal Action Against Directing Cyclists Around Blind Pavement Corners
The PDF plans available on CDC planning website are not optimised for convenient viewing on standard PCs.
PNG format images of some of the key plans for the Southern Access Road are available below. They are much faster to open and are of reasonable resolution.
