Last Friday, I joined with The Rt Hon Nick Gibb MP and Arun District Council leader Cllr Shaun Gunner to mark the start of high-street regeneration in Littlehampton.
The “Levelling Up Littlehampton” project will transform the high-street into a modern shopping and community hub and is part of a wider scheme of works across the Arun District which will revitalise public facilities in Littlehampton and Bognor Regis available to residents and tourists alike.
The renovations will include new exhibition spaces and seafront facilities in Bognor Regis in addition to redeveloped car parks, play areas and lightning improvements in Littlehampton.
The regeneration is funded by £3.5 million from the Government’s Coastal Communities Fund. Arun District Council were also successful in a bid for funding £19.4 million from the Levelling Up Fund, which I supported, at the Government’s latest spending review in October last year.
This funding is in addition to the £112 million of broadband investment for our county secured from the Government last year. That grant will provide up to 68,000 rural premises across the South Downs with lightning-fast broadband connections, as part of Project Gigabit – another key plank of the Levelling Up agenda which is delivering real improvements for West Sussex.
On Tuesday, Highways England launched its formal consultation on the proposed improvements to the A27 near Arundel– a project that locals have been waiting for decades and which is worth up to £350 million in infrastructure funding. This represents a substantial investment by the Government and one that I hope will have a positive impact on the lives of residents and the local economy.
I will continue to work closely with the communities most affected to secure appropriate mitigation measures. There is more to do, but I am please with the progress made on road noise and in reducing the visual impact on Binsted Rife Valley.
The consultation is readers’ chance to have their say on the design of the route which aims to
reduce pressure at the notorious Crossbush junction which leads to congestion and rat-running elsewhere, including air pollution from stationary traffic in places such as Storrington. I would encourage readers to respond to the consultation.
Photo - Left to right: Rt Hon Nick Gibb MP, Cllr Michelle Molloy (Mayor of Littlehampton), Cllr Jacky Pendleton (Deputy Leader of Arun District Council), Cllr Shaun Gunner, Andrew Griffith MP.
