A24 Horsham to Capel - West Sussex County Council

Cabinet Member for Highways and Transport
Highways Scheme Rescission – A24 Horsham –
Capel Improvement
December 2011
Report by Director Communities and Infrastructure
and Strategic Planning Manager
HT03(11/12)
Key Decision:
Yes
Part I
Electoral
Division
Warnham and
Rusper
Executive Summary
The alignment of the A24 Horsham Capel Scheme was approved in 2003. The
scheme was designed to reduce the incidence of personal injury accidents on the
existing A24 between the Great Daux junction with A264 and the County
boundary where the scheme continued to Capel in Surrey. In October 2010,
central Government announced changes to their approach to funding local
authority major schemes and identified those schemes which would be delivered
or developed further during the current spending review period. The A24
Horsham – Capel Scheme was not identified for delivery or further development
and there is currently little prospect of delivering the improvement scheme.
Since the improvement scheme was approved, accident remedial measures have
helped to reduce the incidence of personal injury accidents and in light of the
lack suitable funding opportunities, alternative, low-cost safety improvements
now represent an acceptable and deliverable alternative to the scheme. To
protect the County Council against claims for blight, it is proposed to rescind the
scheme and to discontinue revealing the scheme in land search enquiries.
Recommendation
That the Cabinet Member rescinds the A24 Horsham – Capel Improvement
Scheme.
1. Introduction
1.1 The route of the A24 Horsham – Capel Improvement scheme was approved
by the County Council in 2003 and provides a link between the Great Daux
junction with A264 and a junction south of Capel at Clarks Green in Surrey.
The scheme was intended to reduce the incidence of personal injury
accidents by creating a new single carriageway road designed to modern
standards which would also reduce the impact of traffic on local communities.
1.2 The existing A24 is a single carriageway road which meanders through the
communities of Kingsfold and Clock House. It had a poor accident record
demonstrated by the accident data for 1997 to 2000 shown in table 1 below
which led to the development of the improvement scheme. However, the
most recent data for accidents and casualties between 2008 and 2011

demonstrates a significant improvement in the number of accidents and
casualties. The County Council also monitors the accident record in terms of
vehicle miles which shows that the route currently experiences 23 collisions
per 100 million km which is only slightly above the national average for rural
A-class roads of 19 (2010 average). As a result the route is currently ranked
number 73 on the County Council’s list of priority locations for accident
remedial work and is therefore currently considered a low priority.
Table 1 – Accident / Casualty Summary
Monitoring
Accidents
Casualties
Period
Fatal Serious Slight Total Fatal Serious Slight Total
Previous 3yrs 3 7 24 34 4 7 40 51
01/01/97 -
31/12/99
Current 3yrs
01/11/08 -
31/10/11
0 4 13 17 0 5 18 23
1.3 Horsham District Council are currently reviewing the Horsham District
Planning Framework which is likely to provide a plan for further development
in the District up to 2031. Options for new development are still being
developed and further technical work is required to test the impact of
development on the transport network. This exercise will be expected to
identify what transport mitigation measures are required to support delivery
of new development by mitigating its impact on the transport network. If the
impact of future development in the District means additional road capacity is
required, then proposals will be developed to support the preferred
development strategy. In the absence of a realistic prospect of delivering the
A24 Horsham – Capel Improvement, it is not considered reasonable to retain
the scheme for the sole reason that it may be needed at some unknown point
in the future to mitigate the impact of development.
1.4 Although the capacity of the existing road was not the main justification for
the improvement scheme, planned development in the Horsham area, most
notably the strategic development sites south of Broadbridge Heath
(Countryside Properties) and east of A24 (Berkeley Homes) are likely to place
additional pressure on the transport network in this area. The transport
assessment for these sites assesses the cumulative impact of these
developments on the road network. The greatest impact on the A24 north of
the Great Daux junction with A264 is forecast to be an increase in outbound
trips in the AM peak (78) and inbound in the PM peak (89) as a result of
these developments.
1.5 The impact of future development which is not currently planned but may
come forward through the Horsham District Planning Framework has been
considered. The potential for an additional 4500 homes north of Horsham is
likely to have the most impact on the A24 and therefore, in this case, offers a
worst case scenario in considering the need for the improvement scheme. An
initial estimate of the impact of this site on the A24 north of Great Daux
suggests that there may be potential for approximately 160 additional
journeys in the AM peak (outbound) and PM peak (inbound) resulting from a
residential development of this scale if it were to come forward.

1.6 The County Council monitors traffic flows via a permanent traffic counter in
Kingsfold which, between February and November 2011, monitored an
average weekday peak flow of 1034 vehicles travelling northbound in the AM
peak. A worst case scenario can therefore be considered by adding existing
flows to the impact of the committed development south of Broadbridge
Heath and east of A24 and the potential for potential future development
north of Horsham. The calculations below also factor in traffic growth to 2023
to provide an estimate of the worst case scenario in the AM peak when
observed flows and the impact of development are expected to be greatest.
Calculation 1: Peak traffic flow estimate (AM peak northbound)
Worst
case
scenario
= Observed
traffic flow
(2011)
+ Growth
factor to
(2023)
+ committed
development
west of
Horsham
+ potential
future
development
1396 = 1034 + 124 + 78 + 160
1.7 It is difficult to accurately predict the exact capacity of the existing road
because this depends on a wide range of factors. However, the theoretical
capacity of the existing A24 is estimated to be 1342 vehicles per hour (based
on 7.5m carriageway width and 5% of heavy vehicles). There is potential
that under the worst case scenario, the impact of development may lead to
the requirement for an improvement scheme to be delivered at some point in
the future. This will need to be explored by modelling the impact of future
development through the Horsham District Planning Framework but, at this
point in time, it does not justify retaining the scheme because of an
immediate need to accommodate traffic growth.
1.8 In October 2010, central Government announced changes to their approach
to funding local authority major schemes and identified those schemes which
would be delivered or developed further during the current spending review
period. The A24 Horsham – Capel Scheme was not identified for delivery or
further development during the current spending review period (to 2015)
and, as a result, there is currently little prospect of delivering the scheme
other than if it were required in order to accommodate future development.
When an estimate for the scheme was last produced, the improvement
scheme was expected to cost £57.3m (2006 prices).
1.9 As the scheme has been approved by the County Council, it is revealed in
property searches for those properties which are either directly affected by,
or are adjacent to, the proposed scheme. If the scheme were to be retained,
the County Council may be subject to claims for blight caused by the
existence of the scheme which would only be considered acceptable
financially if there were a realistic prospect of delivering the scheme in the
short term.
1.10 For the reasons outlined in paragraphs 1.2 – 1.9, the Cabinet Member is
recommended to rescind the scheme at the earliest opportunity.
2. Consultation

2.1 Nigel Peters, policy advisor to the Cabinet Member for Highways and
Transport has been consulted and agrees that the improvement scheme
should be rescinded.
2.2 The local member is unable to comment due to a potential conflict of interest
regarding this scheme.
2.3 Brad Watson, the Chairman of the County Local Committee has been
consulted and responded indicating that approved alignment was unlikely to
be sustainable due to local opposition.
2.4 Horsham District Council have been consulted on the proposal to rescind the
improvement scheme and have indicated that they are broadly supportive of
the proposal.
2.5 Surrey County Council is currently in the process of reviewing all its major
schemes and will need to reflect any decisions made by the County Council
on the A24 Horsham – Capel improvement scheme.
3. Customer Focus Appraisal
3.1 A CFA has been carried out which outlines that whilst support for this scheme
has been demonstrated in the past, this is not sufficient justification to retain
the scheme. This decision does not prejudice an improvement scheme being
delivered in the future if it were needed and sufficient funding could be
identified to deliver the scheme.
4. Resource Implications and Value for Money
4.1 It is important to rescind obsolete schemes as the County Council could incur
substantial claims for blight compensation. This may be an acceptable
burden if a scheme is needed in the near future, but is otherwise a large
unnecessary cost if there is no prospect of the scheme being delivered. To
date, £2.7m has been spent on blight claims over approximately the last 30
years and the receipt from the resale of surplus properties is £2.1m.
4.2 Any land and property that will become surplus as a result of the rescission
will be assessed to see whether it is suitable to be sold on the open market.
The extent to which there might be opportunity to do this, in this case, is yet
to be determined and so no estimate is available of the potential sales
receipts at this time.
5. Risk Management Implications
5.1 Rescinding this scheme will reduce the risk to the County Council from claims
for statutory blight.
5.2 There is a risk that the accident record on the existing route returns to the
level which prompted the original need for the improvement scheme.
Rescinding the scheme will not protect against this risk but will not prejudice
an improvement scheme being delivered in the future, if it were required for
any reason.

6. Crime and Disorder Act Implications
6.1 There are no Crime and Disorder Act Implications.
7. Human Rights Act Implications
7.1 The rights of those living near to the line of the improvement scheme and
users of the road network have been considered.
Tony Tonyton
Director Communities & Infrastructure
Mike Elkington
Strategic Planning Manager
Contact: Darryl Hemmings (77250)
Background Papers