The consultations carried out for the Neighbourhood Plan identified the safety and traffic flow in the village centre as the overwhelming priority for the community.
Balcombe Parish Council is now poised to take the next step in looking at solutions.
In order to make any proposals to both the village and then onward to West Sussex Council who are responsible for our roads, we need a comprehensive analysis of the situation, and some well thought through proposals for the village to choose between.
This is a specialist piece of work… comprising traffic flow analysis, highway design taking into account regulations and standards and the due process for any future adoption of a scheme. We also need a sense of the costs associated with each proposal.
Therefore, BPC is proposing to retain a specialist consultant, highly experienced in under taking these kind of projects to provide options and costings that can in future be taken on to implementation.
There is a cost for this consultancy, and whilst it is significant at c£20k, it will put us in position to choose options and understand costs. Without this step we will be unable to change anything.
This investment will be discussed and decided at the next Parish Council meeting 17 October, and anyone with opinions on the merits of taking this step are invited to attend.