Transport & Congestion

Congestion on our roads in West Sussex is threatening the competitiveness of our businesses. It costs the national economy £20 billion or more. 'Sort out the A27' has been a battle cry for a long time and there have been many acute disappointments over the years.

There is now perhaps a good prospect of making progress to obtain improvements at Worthing, Arundel and Chichester; even if, in some cases, it is still likely to be several years away. That is very welcome and we must not let up in continuing to press for all these schemes.

In doing so, we have to recognise that the world has changed for ever and that, with climate change and ecological threats now undisputed, tackling congestion will require a package of measures to increase capacity while also taking action to reduce less essential car journeys. We cannot turn a blind eye to this. The Government has made clear that there will be no funding for major road schemes unless there is a commensurate management demand.

We need therefore imaginative schemes to encourage alternative travel modes; walking and cycling on short journeys, better quality convenient public transport for longer journeys and incentives for those who share their journeys by private car. Inevitably charging will have a role to play to convince the diehard to consider their travel options. All of these methods are tried and tested and do work. What we must all remember is that opposition to such projects will only result in our important road improvement programmes being delayed further or even scrapped.

Business has a big role to play and must accept the reality of the situation; to hang on for expensive, environmentally damaging schemes will ensure that our longed for improvements to relieve congestion will remain in the pending tray perhaps indefinitely. Already some businesses are seeing that by taking action they can help reduce congestion. This can be done by creating flexible employment contracts, travel plans and even encouraging working from home.