Pagham suffering from 'parking chaos' during development's construction

Work to finalise Drew Smith’s £16.2 million, 90 home Summer Fields development, on Summer Lane, is currently ongoing.

The ‘Pagham South Strategic Area’ is tipped for 400 homes – some of the 1,200 expected to be built in Pagham by 2031 under the council’s Local Plan.

Chairman of the Pagham and Aldwick Greenfields Action Movement (PAGAM), Alan Pivett shared photos of a congested Summer Lane last month.

The photos show various vehicles lining the road and parked on pavements at the beginning of the school half term on 24 October.

“Summer Lane is a public footpath and right of way, yet we have seen mothers and children plus dogs having to negotiate an extremely dangerous working environment with six wheel 18 ton or so tipper lorries constantly moving around,” said Mr Pivett.

“Contractors’ vans [were] parked such that a footpath [was] unavailable.”

Mr Pivett said the site manager had apologised and claimed that the vehicles would have to park there for at least two weeks as they were ‘no longer allowed to park within the site’.

One Summer Lane resident was concerned that the popular right of way – part of footpath 100 – was made dangerous for walkers and cyclists.

They said: “The traffic was at a complete standstill and everything was all backing up.

“They’ve constructed this road now in what was a country lane. We said from day dot that the road isn’t wide enough.

“You’ve got people trying to use Summer Lane on bikes and walking because it is a very popular walkway into the countryside.

“What was there [in October] was dangerous.”

A spokesperson for the developer has since responded to the concerns.

“At Drew Smith, we always intend to be a considerate neighbour, and we recognise that on this occasion construction vehicles have been temporarily parked incorrectly on Summer Lane,” they said.

“As part of the planning permission for the site, there is a traffic management plan in place approved by the local authority, and we have spoken to our subcontractors and staff to remind them of the correct parking procedures.”