I was very pleased to be invited to cut the ribbon at this re-launch earlier today at the Holmbush Centre in Shoreham.
Provided by Compass Travel and funded by Tesco, this free bus service operates six different services throughout the week from Pulborough, Burgess Hill, Bognor Regis, Littlehampton and Telscombe Cliffs to the Holmbush Centre in Shoreham.
The service for Steyning and Upper Beeding runs on Tuesdays and Thursdays starting at Burgess Hill and going through Upper Beeding at 11.37am, Bramber at 11.39am and Steyning at 11.43am, reaching Holmbush at 12.05pm. The return journey starts at 1.55pm, leaving nearly two hours for shopping in Tesco’s, M&S and or lunch at McDonalds or M&S.
The re-launched bus service includes new and slightly bigger buses, all of which have low floor access.
It is great that Tesco have shown their commitment to continuing this free bus service in partnership with Compass Travel, and hopefully this will encourage more people out of their cars to visit this excellent shopping centre in Shoreham.
For more details about the bus times of the Holmbush Express go to the link to Compass Bus on this website.
The meeting starts at 7.30pm at the Steyning Centre, and one of the major debates could well be on whether the Steyning should become a Town or remain a Parish. No doubt there will be many good arguments for both points of view, but, at the end of the day it will not involve any additional powers nor costs for the council should it decide to formally become a town council.
I have always considered Steyning to be a Town and would support the suggestion this should be recognised in the name of its Council. Apart from the name, the only difference from a parish council is that the council chairman could become the Town Mayor. I understand that it has been suggested that this would not happen in Steyning if the Council decides to go for town council status; but even if it did it should not involve any extra costs – the role of Town Mayor would be the same as parish council chairman. The outcome of the public consultation in the next newsletter and the discussion at the Annual Parish Meeting on 29 March will be very interesting!
There is also an excellent report from the Traffic Calming Sub-Committee, under the Minutes of the Highways & Lighting Committee of 23 February, covering a possible 20mph zone for the Town. I certainly agree with the feeling of the Sub-Committee that with only six access roads, a high proportion of pedestrians and cyclists, together with the school sites, a 20 mph zone covering the whole Town would be appropriate. Certainly much better than having a few 20 mph limits on specific roads with physical measures to help enforce the limit in those places. Locally in the south the Liberal Democrats running Portsmouth have implemented a successful 20 mph limit on all the residential roads in the City, and whilst Steyning is much smaller there is no reason why such a scheme should not be equally successful here.
Of the six possible entry points to the 20 mph zone: -
Bostal Road junction with Bramber Road,
Bramber Road south of the Bostal Road junction,
Newham Lane junction with Bostal Road,
Horsham Road at Bayards,
Canons Way junction with Steyning Bypass, and
Roman Road/Castle Lane junction,
the first I would move to the Bostal Road access to Mount Park, and the last to the Bramber Roundabout junction with Castle Lane (although I accept that this is in Bramber).
With both Upper Beeding and Steyning considering 20mph zones (and with Bramber soon to get a 20 mph limit in The Street), the approval of new criteria for reduced speed limits, which will be considered by the County Council at the end of March, will be a necessary step forward if such zones are to be progressed.
This is great news, as it was possible that the service would end in April after twelve month’s operation. Speaking to the Managing Director of Compass Travel yesterday he confirmed that with a few minor route changes the bus service had been secured to continue over the summer months.
These minor amendments to the route at the end of March will be to try to gain more passengers to help the bus service become commercially viable. The Wantley Hill area of Henfield will now served, and after going through North Lancing the bus will go to Worthing via Lancing Town Centre. The two hourly service to/from Worthing will be maintained.
Hopefully this continuing commitment to this two hourly bus service throughout the day between Henfield and Worthing will be rewarded by a continuing increase in passengers to enable it to be maintained after the summer is over.
At the request of residents of Oreham Common off Horn Lane, near Small Dole, I have asked the Local Highway Manager to arrange a traffic investigation into extending the 40 mph limit from near Woods Mill to beyond the Oreham Common junction.
As a fairly regular user of Horn Lane, I fully understand local concerns about the lack of signs indicating the junction with Oreham Common, which is between two bends in Horn Lane. Vehicles emerging from Oreham Common are often passed at speed by Horn Lane traffic coming round one of the bends, unaware that they are approaching a road junction.
In addition, as all the properties in Horn Lane, including Oreham Common, have the same post code, delivery vans and horse boxes often have to reverse out of the Oreham Common junction having been mistakenly directed to incorrect destinations by satellite navigation.
If anybody has a view on this matter they could attend the next Chanctonbury County Local Committee meeting on 17 March at the Steyning Centre, Steyning to contribute to the debate under the public forum section of the agenda.
Dry weather was a great help yesterday as local people poured through the doors of the Steyning Centre in their hundreds to visit the large number of Steyning voluntary organisations and groups showcasing their activities.
I was in attendance all day from the opening at 10am to the close at 4pm and was able to visit nearly all the displays. The Centre was packed with people nearly all day with only a slight lull over lunchtime. By the end of the day it was thought that well over 1000 people had visited the event.
It was a long day speaking to many of the people on the displays and also the visitors, being updated on local activities and campaigns which I am supporting and passing on information on progress being achieved at County Hall.
The new ‘green’ Steyning Centre solar panels (part funded by Viridor Credits West Sussex Committee that I chair) were switch on by the local MP. On speaking to the Parish Council Committee Chairman responsible for the work on achieving the installation of the solar panels I learned that he is now looking towards cavity wall and loft insulation at the Centre. I suggested that the Parish Council should also be encouraging other local businesses and individual residents to investigate similar work in their premises and homes to help reduce our energy and carbon use in the Town.
The Chanctonbury County Local Committee (CLC) display included a number of leaflets from County Services, with leaflets on how to apply for a CLC community grant towards small projects. I also ensured there was a plentiful supply of Viridor Credit leaflets on information on how to apply for larger community grants. In addition the 3-in-1 team was present to sign up young people between 5 and 19 in full time education for the free discount, ID and reduced fare card.
All in all it was a great day, everybody I spoke to thought that it had been a tremendous success, with a considerable amount of networking between the people on the various displays and much interest shown and people signing up to the voluntary groups.
Well done to Steyning Parish Council for organising the event!
