Local MP "disappointed" on deferral to A27 upgrades at Crossbush

Andrew Griffith MP, Member of Parliament for Arundel & South Downs, has said he is “Disappointed but will continue to support road improvements” following the announcement that the upgrade to the A27 at Crossbush, near Arundel, has been deferred.

Construction of improvements to the A27 at Crossbush have been deferred into ‘Roads Investment Strategy 3’ which covers the years 2025 to 2030.

The deferral comes as part of wider changes to national transport schemes due to financial pressures caused by COVID and Putin’s war in Ukraine.

In a Written Ministerial Statement, the Transport Secretary said that the scheme’s deferral was due to the extra time needed to accommodate environmental and design changes but the scheme will continue to progress.

Mr Griffith has been vocal in supporting improvements to the A27 at Crossbush and gave his support to the earlier ‘Magenta route’ which was dropped due to the objections from the South Downs National Park Authority.

Commenting, Andrew Griffith MP said: “I am obviously disappointed by the decision to delay the upgrade to the A27 at Crossbush, near Arundel. I will continue to support improvements to alleviate the congestion and rat running which impacts many rural communities and for our county’s roads to be made safer.”

The Government said: “During this Parliament there has been a step change in public investment in infrastructure. The Autumn Statement protected the public capital budget at record levels, meaning government will invest over £600 billion over the next five years. The Chancellor has announced over £40bn of capital investment in transport across the next two financial years, which will drive significant improvements to rail and roads right across our country.

"Since agreeing this programme, we have seen headwinds from inflation, triggered by the impact of Putin's illegal war in Ukraine, as well as supply chain disruption as the global economy recovers from the effects of Covid-19. These headwinds have made it difficult to deliver on our capital programmes, and we recognise that some schemes are going to take longer than expected. Refocusing our efforts will allow us to double down on delivering the rest of our capital programme. This will place our transport investments on a sustainable footing and allow us to support the Government’s priorities of halving inflation, growing the economy and reducing debt"

The Road Investment Strategy 2 is a paper which sets out the Government’s long-term vision for what the strategic road network should look like in 2050, and the steps to help realise this.

Find out more here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/road-investment-strategy-2-ris2- 2020-to-2025 4.

The chosen ‘Grey’ route was as a result of the South Downs National Park declining to consent to the much more widely accepted ‘Magenta’ route which – like the existing A27 – would run for a small part of the way within the National Park boundary.