Traffic chaos continues in Pagham

Lower Bognor Road has been closed since December due to flood, damage, which le to increased traffic on nearby Pagham Road.

The road was briefly closed, also due to flood damage, last week, but has since reopened with temporary traffic lights.

A spokesperson for West Sussex County Council has reminded motorists that this is a dynamic situation, liable to change at short notice depending on the weather, and so the road may be closed again for safety reasons.

The disruption has led to several issues throughout the Pagham Road area, including congestion, delays and a number of accidents due to the overflowing ditches on the side of the road.

Pagham ward’s Arun District Councillor June Hamilton (Ind) has called for more to be done to stop this happening in future.

"They’ve done so little for so long and now they have a crisis on their hands because they haven’t done enough routine maintenance,” she said.

"A lot of the traffic on Pagham Road is rather heavy. It’s big trucks coming in and out of Barfoots, and the road isn’t much wider than a country lane. That’s what it was originally intended for. But now it’s been turned into a highway with totally inadequate banks on either side. The ditches, for example, are hopeless.

We need proper road repairs. What we have feels so amateurish it’s a joke.” Full story on page 3.