This application site is immediately adjacent to the arterial junction of the ‘Star ‘ traffic light junction where the A 264 and A 22 coalesce.

For well over fourteen years this junction has seen NO highways or signal upgrades. Its sister junction at Imberhorne Lane intersection with the A22 and the 300m of carriageway between them - act as a severe and consistent constriction to traffic flowing both southbound - and particularly northbound along this A22 corridor. There is consistent major traffic congestion and queueing between 7:15am and 9:30am and 3pm to 6.30pm.

During this fourteen year period, East Grinstead additional housing completions (including town centre permitted development office conversions to flats) have been in the order of 1,500.

In the past five years along the Crawley Down road there have been five housing sites almost book ended together totalling 250 House completions.

Now, SA19 & 20 propose a further 750 new houses in this immediate Felbridge/A22 corridor.

During this fourteen year period there have been a series of detailed traffic assessments completed for this area - viz ; 

1. 2012 -  Atkins

2. 2016 - Jubb

3. 2018 - WSP

4. 2023 - Atkins undertaking further studies for Surrey Highways.

All of the above reports (spanning a decade plus) have shown that the EXISTING traffic volume conditions are at/over capacity at all peak times.

During this fourteen year period approximately £1 million s106 contributions have been collected by MSDC/WSCC specifically allocated to provide physical mitigation to the above cited junctions/corridor.

To date NONE of this money has been spent - or even committed - to these identified works.

The most recent housing approval of 200 houses at Hill Place Farm specifically allocated £440k and stipulated that this junction upgrade work was to be completed as a condition of planning approval.

In October 2022 East Grinstead Town Council unanimously adopted a strong planning policy statement - calling for a planning condition precedent to be negotiated and legally agreed (s106/s278 ) between all applicant & Local Authority Stakeholders of SA19 & 20  - such that before any planning application was presented that a commitment was made to upgrade the 'Star' and Imberhorne Lane junctions/A22 corridor in order to mitigate clearly evidenced junctions over capacity.

The SA19 applicant's transport report fails to acknowledge or address the above decade of evidence. In addition its premise and modelling appear fundamentally flawed in a number of areas - not least in the reliance of a modelled queue rather than the accepted and on the ground evidence of total traffic queue.

In summary - my assessment of the RAG Delivery Confidence Assessment is RED - as I consider that primary objectives are at serious risk , and remedial action is necessary.