As well as attending lots of wonderful events in the community I also held 17 meetings over the summer to discuss the A27. These included two with the Roads Minister, four with Highways England, three with the community group Build a Better A27 and the rest with West Sussex County Council and Chichester District Council. It’s fair to say my knowledge of road investment has improved a little!
The Road Investment Strategy was a new structure introduced in 2015. Like investment in water and other utilities this is now a regulated process. The reason this new way of managing road investment was introduced was to provide more certain funding and ensure the economic impact of investment was properly considered in the business case for each road scheme. This provides a framework for Government and Highways England to plan more long term and prioritise investment based on comparing like with like. The RIS 1 process began in March 2015 and therefore ends in March 2020 – they are regulated strict five-year budget cycles which is why time is running out to be included in the RIS 1 budget. The A27 Chichester improvements were included in this budget cycle (£230m + £20m contribution from councils, an increase from the initial £120m estimate) however this was based on the scheme known as option two which features a number of flyovers to make traffic flow and provide extra capacity in a relief road. There was a lot of opposition to this scheme so it was cancelled. At the end of July we got the opportunity to still be included in this budget (“uncancel” the scheme) and Highways England agreed to mitigate some concerns raised, including environmental, however the scheme would still be based on the same option and most importantly the councils and community needed to agree they wanted this option.
I have been trying to understand what our alternatives are if we are not united around this option – it’s clear every week from the letters page that this is a tall order. RIS 2 is the next budget cycle and this will open in about one year from now. To be considered in this budget we would have to agree on a solution before Easter next year – this gives us a bit longer for the councils and community to find the best, or more likely, least worst option. There are risks with this approach – we have to compete in a new contest for funding and even though there are clear benefits to the Chichester A27 scheme there are for other roads too. We will also still have budget constraints which will restrict our options. However, Highways England have agreed to work with us to find a solution and support us in our bid for this budget and of course I will be supporting our bid for the budget. Both WSCC and CDC are meeting this week to determine whether we are in a position to move forward with RIS 1 or will we be better served by spending more time to get a better solution in RIS 2 – a tough decision for sure.
Wish me luck! – I’m going to Manchester for the Conservative Party conference this week…last time I was spat at, pushed around and jeered….and I wasn’t even an MP…!