Frustrated resident speaks out as major road in Barnham closed off

The road closure, which cuts off access to Barnham village centre via Eastergate, comes just months after a sewage pipe collapse led to another road closure on a different part of the same road.

Mr Wright says he and other residents believe this week’s work should have taken place then, in order to minimise disruption to the village centre, sentiments echoed by Barnham and Eastergate Parish Council, which submitted an unsuccessful objection to the works as soon as they were announced.

The road has been closed to facilitate foul drainage connection works Elivia Homes Boweries and Warwick developments, and West Sussex County Council said the permit application predates last year’s emergency sewage pipe works, and could not have taken place alongside them due to “technical reasons”.

"The thing is they’ve just also closed the Walberton Road, so, when you look at the whole picture, there’s basically only one road out of Barnham, through Yapton,” Mr Wright said.

"I’m senior clinician, and, from that point of view, you can only imagine how much time that adds to an ambulance journey. So there’s that impact, there’s the obvious impact, on residents, and there’s also the impact on businesses. I’ve spoken to a few, and the Barnham Fish and Chip shop was down by 50 per cent on trade the last time this happened – so it’s impacting everything and everyone. Residents just have no power to effect this at all.”

Mr Wright says that many of the issues – including last year’s sewage pipe collapse – likely stems from ongoing overdevelopment, and argues that there should be greater, more stringent controls on developments in the area, that councils should have more power to prevent developments that might overload sewage systems and infrastructure.

"The fact is, that there has to be some kind of reasonable control to start with – and we have to think about how residents actually manage their daily routine. You can’t just close everything like this.”

Responding to Barnham and Eastergate Parish Council’s objection to this week’s closure, a spokesperson for West Sussex County Council said they would not be able to defer the road works any longer, since doing so might stifle development.

"We hope that the works will not take the full five days of the notice period, but we need to be realistic about the risks that any operator takes when working in the ground,” they added.