Call for low speed zones in Felpham

The call for the safety sites forms part of the councillors' response to the forthcoming planning application for 700 homes on the Felpham portion of the site six development scheme.

The parish council has a nine-strong committee formed specifically to monitor the development of some 20 hectares of farmland north of the existing housing off Westmorland Drive and Normans Drive.

The committee is led by parish council chairman Cllr Paul English.

He told the annual parish meeting on Tuesdayits members were aware of the need to ensure the large development '“ with some 1,600 to 1,700 inhabitants '“ did not worsen traffic conditions for existing residents.

The main object of the councillors' concerns was the provision of the Bognor Regis northern relief road as part of the site six housing.

It was essential the road was provided on time according to the timetable set out by the developers and West Sussex and Arun councils.

It was also important that the 1m which would be provided by the developers was spent on roads around Felpham, stated Cllr English.

He stressed: 'We have started talks with county council highways and voiced our concerns that we do require proper consultation with regards to the allocation and spending of the 1m that we see as specifically set aside by the developers to alleviate the traffic during and after the site six development.

'We are looking for a '˜Billingshurst style' of road calming where it is more popular to travel around the village than travel through it, to have good cycle routes through Felpham to the schools, more frequent buses and routes around our village and with 20mph zones in areas of concern.'

Two Felpham Parish Council members, Cllrs John Holman and Dennis Peerman, will represent it on the Arun site six advisory group which the district council has reformed.

Cllr English also acknowledged the concerns of neighbouring Middleton Parish Council about its anxiety to see improvements made to the Comet Corner junction.

'We do understand that there will be some additional traffic experienced due to the new development and the county council should have foreseen this situation many years ago and allocated funds for improvements as and when required.

'I am hoping to have inter-parish discussions to find the best way forward for the three parishes to work together so as to achieve a reasonable outcome,' he said.

Felpham Parish Council chairman Cllr Jean Jones said the siting of mobile phone masts in the area continued to be controversial.

The masts were needed to improve the signal or facilities of the phones which many residents used and compromise about their location was the main consideration.

The frequent loss of large gardens for new homes was also a matter of concern, she explained.

Cllr Mrs Jones added: 'We continually voice our concerns on the parking and extra traffic, along with the congestion that it caused, without any financial contribution from the land owners.'

Other matters included in the report to Tuesday's meeting were the parish council's desire to continue subsidising car parking to enable it to stay free for users and ensuring public toilets stayed open.

Improvements to the Larksfield play area and the KIng George V playing field and the staging of the ever-popular Fun on the Prom event '“ on July 7 '“ were also featured in the comments.