News

For some weeks there have been extensive roadworks at the junction between Eastern Avenue and Middle Road in Shoreham. That’s the spot where a track cuts through the centre of Ham Field Allotment, connecting Nicolson Drive to Middle Road.

The work has finished and we’ve been down to take a look.

There are several positive changes, but also a bit of room for improvement.

Let’s start with the good news:

Alongside a load of great enhancements for people on foot, these new features will help you if you’re passing through the area on a bike:

✅ Cycle-specific traffic lights

If you’re coming from the east or west, traffic lights now have secondary bike-specific sets at eye level. These lights change to green a few seconds before the main lights, allowing a safety-boosting headstart if you’re on two wheels.

✅ Advance stop lines

An advance stop line has been created at the eastbound end of the allotment track – and one has been repainted at the end of Middle Road. These familiar-looking road markings allow extra space for cycles in front of waiting traffic. Their use is sometimes criticised in some locations, but they do have advantages.

✅ Better sensing for bikes leaving the allotment track

Have you ever sat by the Ham Field waiting to head into Middle Road – and waited, and waited, and waited? Before the recent work, people on bikes were often missed by the sensors controlling the lights. Not anymore. We’re not sure exactly how the new sensors work, but we didn’t have to wait long before lights changed green in our favour.

✅ Good quality surfacing

At the entrance to the allotment track, high quality tarmac has replaced a rough unsurfaced area. This is easier and safer to ride on – but only at the eastern end of the track.

All these measures combine to make the new junction much easier to negotiate by bike, as well as on foot. We’re grateful to West Sussex County Council, and we’ve spoken to them to tell them so.

However…

There are a couple of aspects of the project that seem like missed opportunities. These concerns don’t spoil the great work that’s been described above, but we’re speaking to WSCC about them…

❌ Continued reliance on a ‘shared use’ path instead of enabling space for bikes

The eastern end of the allotment track has a brilliant new surface. But a few metres along, the tarmac stops and the original unsurfaced track takes over. A ‘drop kerb’ allows westbound people on bikes to join the existing ‘shared use’ path. This arrangement continues to bring bikes into close proximity with people walking through the area – including young children on their way to school.

In our view, a further strip of tarmac at the level of the existing wide track could have connected Middle Road to Nicolson Drive without having to awkwardly share space with vulnerable pedestrians.

Confusingly, there’s a stencilled ‘bike’ symbol on the tarmac, near the dropped kerb, but its position suggests bikes continue on the rough track – on a surface that is currently only suitable for mountain bikes, not regular cycles. This symbol seems like it should have been placed a few metres sooner if it is intended to guide westbound cyclists.

❌ No cycle provision on Eastern Avenue lights

East-west cycling (along National Cycle Network Route 2) has been improved by this recent work. But the new lights installed for traffic approaching the junction on Eastern Avenue from the north or south lack the same advance stop lines, or cycle-specific traffic lights. This means if you approach this junction on a bike from the north or south, you are less protected than if you approach from the west or east.

So, our overall verdict on this recent work is positive, but with some reservations, and perhaps some opportunity for future improvement.

What do you think?

On Thursday 11 October, there’s a by-election in the Southlands ward of Shoreham by Sea. That’s the area in the north-east Shoreham between Middle Road and Upper Shoreham Road. The successful candidate will be one of Southlands’ representatives on Adur District Council.

Three candidates are standing:

• • • Debs Stainforth, for the Labour Party (Response below)
    • Tony Nicklen, for the Conservative Party
    • Andrew Bradbury, for the Green Party (Response below)

Southlands is a small area, but a busy one, with many houses and flats, and a couple of parks. People travel through Southlands on their way to multiple schools and a huge retail complex. In Southlands, many people make many journeys.

With this is mind, we’re keen to know how the by-election candidates see transport in Southlands, and in Shoreham more generally.

How do they feel about the transport choices people have, and the choices they make? What do they think of the facilities provided to enable people to make healthy, sustainable, considerate transport decisions?

Specifically, here are our questions:

1. What do you think of the transport choices available to the people of Southlands, and of Shoreham more generally, particularly for short journeys within the town? Are there any improvements you would like to see?
2. Shoreham Academy, with some 1,500 pupils, attracts large amounts of traffic, disruption and pollution, as many children are delivered and collected by car. How do you feel about this? Can the situation be improved around Shoreham Academy and around other local schools?
3. The National Cycle Network’s Route 2 passes through Southlands, along Middle Road. Along with other local roads like Hammy Lane, Stoney Lane and Upper Shoreham Road, cycling facilities are poor or absent, driving standards are poor, and speeding is commonplace. Accidents involving vulnerable road users are not uncommon. How should this situation be improved?

We invite the three candidates to respond to these questions, and add any other thoughts they want to share. We’ll share those answers, so voters in Southlands can consider their vote this coming Thursday.

(Candidates: Tell us your responses via email, or via a comment beneath this post, or via our Facebook. We may copy your answers across between platforms, so more people see them.)

Response from Andrew Bradbury, Green Party

Response from Debs Stainforth, Labour Party

We’ve just had a really good chat with Councillor Stephen Chipp about Southwick Square and what might be done to improve it.

We like Southwick Square. It’s a great little hub of shops and facilities, within easy walking and cycling distance for thousands of local residents.

But Southwick Square isn’t perfect, and Cllr Chipp recently asked, via Facebook, what could be done to bring improvements. So we met him in the Square for a conversation, as did several other local residents.

The main point we made to Cllr Chipp was that Southwick Square would be a more pleasant, less polluted, and more people-focussed place if walking and cycling to the square was an easier, more enjoyable thing to do. Many local shopping trips are only for a few items, and a car isn’t always needed.

With this in mind, we suggested:

• An extension of the BTN BikeShare scheme into Southwick, enabling easy journeys by bike.
• The need for more good quality bike infrastructure leading to Southwick Square, for example across Southwick Green or down Southwick Street
• At present, Southwick Square is technically an ‘access only’ street – so not to be used as a through route. But this remains unenforced, with many people driving through. Perhaps physical measures like bollards would retain vehicular access while blocking ‘rat running’.
• It is illegal to ‘idle’ a vehicle for no good reason, yet many people sit in vehicles with their engines running. This affects air quality in Southwick Square.

Solutions may not be quick and easy, but we’re glad Cllr Chipp discussed these ideas with us. We’ll keep in touch.

(Photo above used under Creative Commons licence from Dauvit Alexander)

We need your help.

We are having conversations with Adur District Council and with West Sussex County Council about the future of cycling in Shoreham.

There are long-term plans and strategies in the works – new and improved cycle routes, and other big changes.

At 10am on 15 July around 250 people gathered at the Sussex Pad crossing of the A27 to protest against the changes to the transport infrastructure proposed by the developers for New Monks Farm (Shoreham IKEA).

As well as 250 people on bicycles, tricycles, foot and horse there was a BBC South East camera crew and other media.

The protest was organised by Bricycles and Brighton & Hove Friends of the Earth, and was not a protest against the development as a whole, but against sub-standard proposals not intended to give the people of Shoreham-by-Sea, Lancing and surrounding areas the infrastructure they not only deserve but that is recommended under the Government Standard for Highways Advice IAN195/16.

A few days later, the Adur Planning Committee met on Wednesday 18 July to decide on the Monks Farm Development. This public meeting, at the Woodard Academy, Lancing, led to the planning decision being deferred while the developers compile evidence of how they will enhance the area’s environment:
https://www.adur-worthing.gov.uk/meetings-and-decisions/committees/adur/planning/committee,149643,en.html

These early days for Shoreham-By-Cycle have certainly been busy. Things are moving quickly, and our work is expanding.

In order to keep co-ordination and plan our next steps, the core team at the heart of Shoreham-By-Cycle get together every few weeks, to look at our progress, identify challenges, and make plans.

Here’s an overview of what we’re working on at the moment…

Sussex Yacht Club

Plans for the redevelopment of Sussex Yacht Club make for very positive news. We’re pleased to see that a cycle route – of some kind – will be provided along the northern edge of the site, but we are concerned about limited space and the precise design of the space. We’re in conversation with West Sussex County Council to get further clarity. As part of the improvement of National Cycle Network Route 2, it is vital that new facilities beside the A259 are of the highest quality – eventually connecting up to create a major direct cycle route between Shoreham and Southwick.

New Salts Farm Road

The new speed bumps installed by Hyde Housing remain problematic, presenting a safety risk for people using bikes to travel between Lancing/Shoreham Beach and the airport area. We’re persisting with our conversation with Hyde Housing, offering to help with examples of how the design may be easily adjusted to provide a safer solution.

Bike-Sharing in Shoreham

Many people have asked us about the possibility of extending bike-sharing schemes (like Brighton’s BTN BikeShare or Worthing’s Donkey Republic) into Shoreham, as our town is currently lost between the bike-sharing in our two larger neighbours. We know the huge benefits of bike-sharing, so we’ll be discussing the possibilities with councils and providers.

Riverside changes

We recently took part in a tour of the large-scale flood defence work that is currently underway beside the River Adur. Of particular interest were changes along the western riverbank beside the airport, where there will be an improvement in the path that runs parallel to Cecil Pashley Way. We’re on the case to press for maximum utility for people on bikes, with regard to factors like width and surfacing.

As a temporary measure, an ad hoc ramp has been re-opened providing pedestrian access between the airport area and Shoreham Recreation Ground. This is a big improvement for people using bikes (or other mobility aids, like wheelchairs) to access the businesses around the airport, Lancing College, and recreational routes like the Downs Link. We’ll be contacting the airport management to thank them for this ramp, and asking them to make it a permanent facility. Our full report of the tour is on Facebook.

Adur and Worthing Cycling and Walking Action Group

We are now members of Adur and Worthing Cycling and Walking Action Group, which is a very positive gathering of parties interested in improving the situation for cycling a walking in our area. We’re working with AWCWAG to gather evidence that will help plan for better infrastructure for active travel.

New Monks Farm, IKEA and the A27 crossing

The proposed developments at New Monks Farm will have a major impact on Shoreham. We are extremely grateful to Brighton and Hove Friends of the Earth, who have commissioned and submitted a report to Adur and Worthing councils. Their report makes some clear constructive criticism of various aspects of current proposals, including proposed cycle infrastructure within new housing, and the removal of the ‘Sussex Pad’ crossing – currently a very useful facility for cyclists.

Meeting local politicians and groups

It’s important that Shoreham-By-Cycle represents everyone in Shoreham who stands to benefit from better cycling facilities, so we’re always keen to make connections and have useful conversations with others.

We recently met with Catherine Arnold, councillor for the St Mary’s area, and also with the Shoreham Society, who keep a close eye on developments and changes in our town. We’ve also met with other cycling advocacy groups, like Sustrans, Bricycles and Horsham District Cycling Forum, all of whom have been really helpful and welcoming.

We’re lining up other meetings and chats with people involved in important conversations. If you’d like a chat, get in touch!

On 15 May, we went along to Shoreham Port‘s annual public meeting. Many of us cycle through Shoreham Port, as it hosts part of National Cycle Network Route 2 between Hove and Southwick.

It’s always good to hear what’s going on with the life of the port, and the Shoreham Port team made Clive and Irv very welcome, alongside representatives from residents’ groups, businesses, commercial mariners, leisure boaters, local politicians and others.

For most of the meeting, the topics being discussed were interesting, but not necessarily related to cycling.

Monday night was our first public outing as Shoreham-By-Cycle! Clive, Irv and Alastair went along to the Adur Residents Environmental Action meeting.

There were about 150 people there – many with strong opinions about pollution in Shoreham and the prospect of new building development. (Our opinion on new developments is neutral, but we feel improvements to Shoreham’s cycling environment would be a great thing – with or without new developments.) A panel included key people from The Shoreham Society and Adur Residents Environmental Action, as well as a local representative from Friends of the Earth.