Felpham councillors call for action over traffic logjam

Felpham parish councillors, whose boundary starts at the holiday site, said the opening of the relief road last month had failed to solve the problem.

Graham Jones, the area’s county councillor, said he had written to Butlin’s local director, Jeremy Pardey, to request a meeting to sort out the bottleneck.

This was tried last year. Mr Pardey had been unable to attend the dates suggested but said he would be happy to meet on other days. This offer failed to be followed up, said Cllr Jones (I, Felpham).
“I have spoken to Mr Pardey again and I am confident that meeting will happen this time,” Cllr Jones said.

“I’ve not seen the traffic jams but my wife is on the bus on Friday afternoons and she tells me about the delays.”

Cllr Graham Matthews said he saw the jams from his home which overlooks Felpham Way. “Every Monday and Friday from 1pm you can’t get down Felpham Way and you can’t get out of Upper Bognor Road. There are two lanes of traffic trying to get across the roundabout into one line going inside.

“I had an appointment at Bognor Regis War Memorial Hospital yesterday (Monday) and it took me 30 minutes to get there. Most of it was spent sitting on the roundabout looking at four lanes of traffic trying to get into Butlin’s.

“Everybody else was stuck trying to get from Bognor to Felpham and from Felpham to Bognor.”

Police officers have been called in to stop tempers fraying. The problem has been raised before. One suggestion involved Butlin’s moving its gatehouse further back into the holiday resort to enable more queuing space for motorists off the roundabout.

But Cllr Paul English said he doubted it would happen. “There are computer cables and everything else coming up into that hut. To move it would cost a fortune,” he said.

He called for yellow hatching to be painted at the roundabout by the county council to tell motorists to keep it clear. A number plate recognition camera should also be installed.

“Every time a motorist goes into the hatched area and stops they get a £30 fine,” he said. “That would return the roundabout to what it is supposed to be - where the traffic is moving.

“It will be total gridlock once the University of Chichester comes out on to there, once the schools come out on there and at the same time as the traffic is going in to Butlin’s.”

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