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Spotlight on Storrington: A sleepy village that is now wide awake

Deep in the heart of West lies Storrington. Bordering the National Park, Storrington has one main high street and 4500 residents – but a traffic flow of up to 20,000 vehicles per day.

Look past the heavy flow of vehicles cutting through its centre, and Storrington is still “[Storrington] is one of the most the picturesque village it’s always been. But regularly used rat-runs, where according to data collected from Compare traffic travels through the centre My Move, it has the greatest amount of air of the village to avoid congestion pollution anywhere in the south-east1. at ,” Darryl Hemmings, Transport, Planning and Policy Manager at County Council, says. “[The congestion] has led to the declaration of an air quality management area, as the air pollution exceeds the national standards for oxides and nitrogen. Air quality management areas are rare in such rural locations; we usually see them in urban areas. That’s really down to the volume of traffic that uses the route to avoid congestionon Darryl Hemmings, Transport, Planning and the A 27.” Policy Manager at West Sussex County Council Paul Marshall, Cabinet Member for West rural and residential routes. That should Sussex County Council, has concerns about directly affect the people living in those areas, the air quality in Storrington as a “direct reducing the amount of noise and a number consequence of the diversionary traffic2”; of air quality issues. It should also make West frustrated drivers are continuing to rat-run Sussex a more attractive place to live, to do through local villages on roads that are not business in and to visit, which is really key in built for the vast amounts of traffic that they supporting the economic vitality of the county.” currently experience. A free-flowing route on the A27 at Arundel According to City Population, a website that would provide the capacity to allow drivers to measures population statistics, over half take a direct, free-flowing route to and from Storrington’s population comprises children work, school, the shops or friends and family. or over 65s – both groups are particularly This could draw traffic away from rat-runs susceptible to air pollution. on roads that were not built for such high volumes, providing the opportunity for places As Nick Fields of local community group like Storrington to improve their air quality, and OneArundel, says, “[A27 congestion] does not restore the tranquil quality of life they should just impact Arundel; the effects of congestion be known for. are widespread.”

1 Figure relates to particulate matter But there’s light at the end of the tunnel with planned improvements in the pipeline, 2 www.littlehamptongazette.co.uk/news/ according to Darryl. “We expect improvements politics/council-votes-to-protest-legal-chal- to the A27 Arundel Bypass to encourage lenge-to-a27-arundel-bypass-1-8626914 more traffic to use the A27 rather than those

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