Breakthrough in bid to tackle dangerous road behaviour near Midhurst

After months of work, Bury A29 Road Improvement Committee (BA29RIC) is delighted to announce a major breakthrough in its efforts to reduce dangerous and anti-social road behaviour on the A29 as it passes through Bury.

West Sussex County Council has confirmed that a Community Highways Scheme application by the BA29RIC for a reduction in the speed limit on the A29 has been successful and will be implemented.

The scheme will see a reduction in the speed limit on the A29 to 40mph throughout the parish, from the onset of the current 50mph limit near Carringdales, all the way up Bury Hill to beyond the South Downs Way crossing point.

It is hoped but not yet confirmed that at that point the current national speed limit will be dropped to 50mph to the Whiteways roundabout. The news follows a great deal of work by members of the BA29RIC community action group and before that by Bury Parish Council, which supported the CHS application.

It represents a major breakthrough in attempts to reduce the growing problem of noise and dangerous speeding on Bury Hill predominantly by a persistent minority of motorcyclists which has disturbed life in Bury particularly over summer weekends for more than 20 years.

The BA29RIC’s work has won important support from key figures including our MP Andrew Griffith, Police and Crime Commissioner Katy Bourne, County Councillor Tom Richardson, who helped to draft the CHS application, and District Councillor John Cross.

Work has included data collection and liaising with Sussex Police over enforcement, as well as drawing up a vision of how better the A29 might serve the community of Bury in the future. In the summer of 2023, a mini-conference on the A29 in Bury jointly staged by the BA29RIC and Bury Parish Council at Bury village hall was attended by members and officers from West Sussex County Council, the South Downs National Park Authority and Chichester District to name a few.

The new speed reduction will discourage those who see Bury Hill as an opportunity to speed dangerously along the hill’s series of bends, with loud engine noise being funnelled down to the village and beyond.

Bury Parish Council have generously agreed to donate some 20% of the costs of the Scheme and the BA29 RIC are also exploring additional sources of funding. If we can contribute significantly towards the costs it is more likely that implementation will be prioritised and expedited by the Highways Department.

But this is only the beginning of the BA29RIC’s ambitions. At the 2023 mini-conference, the BA29RIC presented an ambitious 12-point plan, of which a speed reduction was just one part.

Once achieved, the new 40mph limit will allow our community to stage Speedwatch traffic monitoring operations (previously impossible alongside a 50mph-limit road). And the BA29RIC is also actively urging the deployment of average speed cameras on Bury Hill to further discourage speeding, which often exceeds 100 mph.

The BA29RIC is in dialogue with PCC Katy Bourne about the possibility of such cameras being installed in much the same way as they have in neighbouring Hampshire to tackle similar problems.