A county council has explained how working with a parish council has been key in improvements on the A285 through the village of Halnaker.

West Sussex County Councill worked with Boxgrove Parish Council and its Traffic Action Group to identify the improvements to the road following concerns raised by the community.

Elements of the £150,000 scheme included, highlighting key junctions with buff-coloured surfacing to raise road users’ awareness of the layout, slow down traffic and give better visibility to vehicles pulling onto the A285 from side roads, adding dropped crossing points to assist pedestrians – particularly with vulnerable people in mind and an improved, more visible, pedestrian crossing point at the southern Public Right of Way.

It also Entrance gates at both ends of the village – a double set at the south and a single pair at the north Parking provision was formalised with bays for up to 12 cars at an area of highway land on Denge Lane: this had been informally used for parking by visitors to Halnaker Windmill, with indiscriminate parking becoming an issue

Parish Council chairman Henry Potter explained this was the latest in a series of highway improvement initiatives, “The Parish of Boxgrove is extremely fortunate in having a team of Volunteers who, over the past six years, have achieved so much towards making Boxgrove and Halnaker safer places for pedestrians and, to some degree, cyclists and motorists. We have been helped and guided all the way by our Local County Councillor,  Jeremy Hunt.

“The Parish Council, on behalf of the community, would like to thank the County Council and the highways officers for all their support throughout the implementation of these schemes. The work by Landbuild has been exemplary throughout and to be commended.”

The scheme cost a total of approximately £150,000. The Parish Council says, through the efforts of one of its volunteers, secured a grant of £30,000 from the Rees Jeffreys Foundation Fund towards the cost and a further grant of £10,000 from Inert Recycling was allocated to the scheme. Some Parish Community Infrastructure Levy (CIL) funds were also contributed. The rest was funded by the County Council.

(Picture: Before and after – parking provision: a safety enhancement, with formalised bays for up to 12 cars on Denge Lane – courtesy West Sussex County Council)