A272 and junctions
Apart from the beautiful rural setting, an attraction of living in Bolney is its excellent access to the A272 and the A23. It is naive to think that residents will not need cars and there could easily be 2 per household if not more, not counting delivery vehicles and non-resident car movements. Yet another access point at Crosspost into the Foxhole Farm site will create an increased burden of traffic on the A road and the adjoining lanes and private entrances. Already this is a very dangerous stretch of road and adding additional complexity with increased traffic and complex traffic management measures cannot possibly improve the situation for local residents and for road safety in general.
Increased traffic is certain as the village will inevitably have to accommodate additional car ownership in the new housing estates. This will increase traffic jams and accidents at the many junctions on the A272, with the knock-on effect of creating rat-runs through the village. This is already a problem and despite a 20mph speed limit in parts of the village, it will only get worse. At Crosspost, volume of traffic, speed of traffic, unpredictable vehicular turns, difficulty getting out of private driveways and dreading the ominous sounds of screeching brakes have been a blight on the lives of residents for a long time. One resident has logged incidents sporadically over a period of 3 months, read the account here. One person was observed being taken to hospital for surgery following an incident.
West Sussex collision location map for the last 5 years is here
FOI request for information from Sussex Police regarding collisions between Cowfold and Bolney, reply of 18 March 2024, FOI ref 0340 24:
The A272 is a fast and busy road not suitable for cyclists. There is a single north-south cycle path on the eastern edge of the village but even this directs cyclists to cross the A272 very close to the busy and fast roundabout by the bridge. It is dangerous for pedestrians to cross the A272 by Bolney Nursery to get to the Diamond Jubilee Walk beyond.
The study for traffic access plans along the A272, as proposed by Wates for Foxhole Farm, has not gone into sufficient detail to give a realistic assessment of existing and increased traffic volume and risk to life. They may not have taken a broad view of the effect of additional cars on ALL junctions along the Bolney stretch of the A272 and also other traffic which will be generated by Rampion 2. Any under-estimation of the scope and cost of mitigating roadworks at this stage will have serious repercussions later on if outline planning permoission is granted before these issues are bottomed out: this is a burning issue for the proposed Foxhole development and not to be considered a formality for later resolution.
Any future installation of new traffic lights by the commercial buildings on the former Marylands Nursery site will cause yet further traffic buildup which needs to be taken into account for traffic analysis for Foxhole Farm.
Construction traffic is a big issue, as witnessed by large vehicles turning and the large number of contractor vehicles parked for several months along both sides of London Road during construction of Davey Drive / Walder Close (Churchfield View development), obscuring visibility and posing a safety risk to road users. Any construction traffic with access points to a site on the A272 will cause havoc with traffic flow and would have to be regularly monitored for compliance with safe operating procedures.
