News

Anti-social road use – A29/Bury Hill

Cllr Paul Whyles, who takes the lead on road matters for Bury Parish Council, had a meeting last week with Chief Inspector Habib Rahman, the newly appointed dedicated Sussex Police chief inspector overseeing all of the work and concerns relating to anti-social/dangerous driver behaviour. The meeting took place beside the A29 at the foot of Bury Hill and lasted around an hour, during which time Cllr Whyles was able to fully brief Ch Insp Rahman on Bury’s long-standing problems with anti-social road use on Bury Hill resulting in excessive noise and dangerous speeds blighting our community during weekends during the summer.

Ch Insp Rahman emphasised that Operation Downsway, which was so effective in reducing these problems last year as a result of police presence during many weekends over the summer, will be back this year and that if anything police commitment to it will be greater than ever.

This is good news for Bury in the short term but Chief Inspector Rahman also agreed with Cllr Whyles that a sustainable long-term solution (which was the purpose of BPC’s application to the Sussex Safer Roads Partnership for average speed cameras on Bury Hill, an application backed by our MP Andrew Griffith and our district councillor David Bradford) was his ambition. To that end, Ch Insp Rahman has convened a meeting later this month to discuss road safety issues on Bury Hill, which will be attended by a number of senior police officers, as well as Cllr Whyles. A report of that meeting will follow in due course.