Local Issues

04 Dec

SMALL BUSINESS SATURDAY

It’s Small Business Saturday tomorrow. Small businesses are the lifeblood of our economy, especially in these difficult times. They employ nearly 17 million people.
If you’re looking for everything you need for Christmas, shop local and support small businesses running shops in our area.
Find out what’s near you here👇
Small Business Saturday UK | Another year making a Big Difference!
27 Nov

M27 WESTBOUND OFF-SLIP ROAD SHORTENING UPDATE

Further to my conversations and correspondence with the Project Sponsor for the Highways England
Smart Motorways project regarding works to significantly reduce the length of the westbound off-slip I can report:
TEMPORARY WORKS
These will commence as planned this weekend and continue into next week. The purpose of these works is to start the installation process for communications cables and a new gantry. This will mean a reduction in the full length of the existing off slip to do so. However, due to the current reduced traffic flows, the 50mph speed limit in place plus additional signage which will be added Highways England is content with this as a temporary measure. Highways England will be closely monitoring the impact of this on the main carriageway and will put in place further measures if required.
PERMANENT WORKS
Highways England will immediately start work on further traffic modelling including the effects of the improvements to junction 9 to predict the queue lengths once all the works being undertaken in the area have been completed. Once those figures are known an appropriate solution will be implemented. Work to look at alternative options is underway and this could well result in the slip road being retained at a longer length than currently proposed.
The full Smart Motorway scheme is due for completion next spring so the permanent solution should be known soon. I will advise when I know what that will look like.
I am grateful to the hundreds of residents who have contacted me via social media and by email to express their concerns.
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24 Nov

JUNCTION 9 WESTBOUND EXIT SLIP ROAD SHORTENING AND WESTBOUND ENTRY SLIP ROAD CLOSURE

During late November and early December 2020 Highways England
will be making changes to the M27 junction 9 westbound exit slip road.
The current layout of the M27 junction 9 westbound exit slip road was built decades ago to be much longer in length than a standard exit slip road as it was hoped that a service area would be placed there. As a service area wasn’t built, Highways England has decided to make the slip road into a standard length.
To carry out this work, there will be a full weekend closure of the M27 junction 9 westbound exit slip road from 10.00pm on Friday 27 November until Monday 30 November at 6.00am. This will then be followed by a series of overnight closures from 10.00pm to 6.00am, each night, from Monday 30 November 2020 until Friday 4 December 2020. The new layout will then be opened on Tuesday 8 December 2020.
OVER THE SAME WEEKEND THE THE WESTBOUND ENTRY SLIP ROAD WILL ALSO BE CLOSED FROM 9pm ON FRIDAY UNTIL 6am on MONDAY. Safety barriers will be replaced along with carriageway widening and resurfacing.
Drivers are advised to be prepared for a different road layout once work is complete and to take care while the new layout is unfamiliar to them.
Personally I always thought the overly long slip road made a safe queuing space off the main motorway carriageway. Clearly Highways England takes a different view.
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