A27 Reference Group Meeting Friday 22 July 10am East Sussex County Council, County Hall Attendees: Simon Kirby MP (Chair) Caroline Ansell MP (sub for Maria Caulfield MP) Director of Communities, Economy and Transport, East Sussex County Council Cllr Keith Glazier, Leader, East Sussex County Council Cllr Bob Standley, Leader, Wealden District Council Cllr David Tutt, Leader, Eastbourne Borough Council Cllr Ian Hollidge, Rother District Council (sub for Cllr Carl Maynard) Cllr Elayne Merry, Deputy Leader, Lewes District Council (sub for Cllr Andy Smith) Development Management Team Leader, Rother District Council (sub for ) Head of Regeneration & Planning Policy, Eastbourne Borough Council (sub for ) Head of Communications and Marketing, Hastings Borough Council (sub for ) Cllr Mike Blanch, East Sussex County Council Jasmin Barnicoat, Executive Officer, East Sussex County Council (Minutes) Apologies: Nus Ghani MP Amber Rudd MP Huw Merriman MP Maria Caulfield MP Cllr David Elkin, Deputy Leader, East Sussex County Council Cllr Carl Maynard, Leader, Rother District Council Cllr Peter Chowney, Leader, Hastings Borough Council Executive Director, Rother District Council Chief Executive, Eastbourne Borough Council Director, Hastings Borough Council Director, South East Local Enterprise Partnership Chief Executive, Coast to Capital Local Enterprise Partnership Chairman, Coast to Capital Local Enterprise Partnership Chair, Team East Sussex Team Manager, Strategic Economic Infrastructure, East Sussex County Council Item Action 1. Welcome, Introductions and Apologies Apologies noted above. 2. Update on Highways England’s A27 work April 2016 Workshop HE held a workshop with stakeholders in April 2016. They set out the context and shared their draft scheme objectives. There was no reference in the objectives to supporting economic growth or the consideration of local housing targets. They did not reference the planned growth in the Hailsham area and the scope of their package did not include the Cophall roundabout. Their proposals also do not improve the resilience of the network. The Reference Group were frustrated that nearly all the members were not invited to this stakeholder workshop. ACTION – to circulate slides from that workshop to the group. Both CA and BS confirmed that the Parliamentary Under Secretary of State for Transport, Andrew Jones MP, is very positive about the proposed larger scheme and he has remained in post during the recent Cabinet reshuffle. Current status and future stages HE are currently still looking at the smaller scale improvements and in the absence of an instruction to stop, they will continue. HE are currently in their research phase. has requested HE specifically meet with the A27 Reference Group as part of this research. 3. Update on discussions with DfT/case for substantial A27 improvement and met with the DfT recently and they stressed the importance of showing a strong level of consensus locally. ACTION – A joint letter should be submitted to the DfT with all the A27 Reference group signatories. It will demonstrate cross-party political support at all tiers of local government and the business community. will consider the appropriate time to submit this and a letter will be drafted outlining the work ESCC and the A27 Reference Group are currently undertaking. It is important that conversations are held with the SDNPA. It has been agreed with the DfT that ESCC will take the lead in developing the scheme. Timings need to be considered and how it feeds into the RIS2 process. The DfT suggested that a Strategic Outline Business Case needs to be developed for 2017/18; design could follow later. Two strands of work are currently being undertaken/about to be commissioned: Wealden Local Plan review – ESCC have commissioned consultants with Wealden to assess the transport implications of the planned housing and employment being considered in their Local Plan Review and identify at a high level what potential transport interventions are required to mitigate the impact. Wealden have identified that the level of growth is contingent on the A27 and we are expecting the initial modelling outcomes (due September) to confirm this. Update of the A27 Feasibility Improvement Study - Following the meeting with DfT, it was agreed that ESCC would, as an initial step, seek a review of the DfT/HE’s previous 2014 study and update the value for money assessments of the various options considered at the time – local bypasses through to the offline solutions – in light of the additional pressures that will arise on the A27 from the housing/employment in the Wealden Local Plan review. is liaising with who undertook the previous study and they are interested in the commission. They are scoping out for ESCC what they believe is required. So long as their brief/fee is acceptable then ESCC will commission them to update that element of the previous study. This will be funded from ESCC current budgets. If the results demonstrate that an offline solution represents good value for money (a BCR of 2) then ESCC would look to undertake further work to develop a strategic outline business case (develop a webTAG compliant transport model to enable detailed modelling analysis, an assessment of wider economic benefits, develop options for routes etc). There have been positive discussions with the DfT and they recognise that they may have not taken into consideration certain things. Depending on the outcome, if successful, ESCC would co-locate a team to HE to produce a more detailed design. At this stage timescales are unsure, but ESCC would hope to have the final outcome by Christmas. advised that it is important to remember that this scheme has a lot of stages to go through before even being considered for building (which could potentially take 3 years in itself). However, this has been a very positive step forward with the DfT. 4. Highways England Roads Investment Strategy 2 (2020 – 2025) Highways England has started the development process for their second round of Roads Investment Strategy which will cover the period 2020 to 2025. Conversations are currently ongoing with the DfT to determine what will happen with the RIS1 money if it is not spent. The group discussed whether they should ask for the RIS1 money to continue be spent on the minor improvements in the short term. 5. AOB SK declared that due to his recent appointment as Economic Secretary to the Treasury, he will have to step down from his position as Chair of the Reference Group. SK recommended that MC take over as Chair and the group agreed. .