[Travel] Shoreham Traffic

[Eric the meek]

All of a sudden, affordable housing is all the rage, with huge developments going up.

Hove, Shoreham, now Lewes. All with less than adequate parking. Or no parking. But not to worry - there'll be plenty of space for your E-bike to catch fire.

Where's the next big development going to be? My tip is the east quay at Newhaven..........oh.

 

[Harry Wilson's tackle]

Why are you now banging on about Trump and the American electorate?

Think I pulled you up for likes on a football forum? Get real, you are beyond weird. I just don’t like people twisting peoples words, whether you did it to him or he did it to you. I didn’t do it for appreciation from anyone.

Give it a rest. You're like an annoying urchin, tugging at my raiment.

Although....since you appear to have gone mad and just won't shut up, you can go on ignore. I'd never heard of you before yesterday, so I won't miss our chats

 

[Greg Bobkin]

Blair let the cork out with free movement. Admirable on paper, most of us welcomed the hard working folk from eastern Europe.

But infrastructure wasn’t adjusted for the millions of new UK residents, housing supply trickled along.

Looking forward, if millions of new homes were built in the Midlands and North, would vast numbers of southerners in their 20’s and 30’s move there? Would there be the careers and jobs there?

Blair and all who’ve followed patently didn’t/haven’t strategically planned. Leaving the mess we’re on. Shelter say we need 3.1 brand new social housing units. Where are the improved public transport systems, new GP surgeries?

Bringing it back to Good Old Shoreham-By-The-Sea, a new GP surgery (with pharmacy attached) has been built on the grounds of the old bit of Southlands hospital in recent years and at least two off-site locations within a mile or so of the town that have been turned into surgeries. One of my most recent trips to the town was to go into the surgery and it was relatively empty – certainly more staff behind the screens than actual patients waiting to be seen. So the whole 'I can't get an appointment because of immigrants' line was certainly not the case on that occasion. Having been involved in countless appointments and phone queues with that place, it's more about the bureaucracy than availability of appointments – especially because there seem to be about 15 doctors on the books.

Transport-wise, a bit further back in time, there was the extension of the A27 bypass (Southwick tunnel and all that jazz), a road which is now currently undergoing a further upgrade to the west of that addition.

 

[smiler]

Bringing it back to Good Old Shoreham-By-The-Sea, a new GP surgery (with pharmacy attached) has been built on the grounds of the old bit of Southlands hospital in recent years and at least two off-site locations within a mile or so of the town that have been turned into surgeries. One of my most recent trips to the town was to go into the surgery and it was relatively empty – certainly more staff behind the screens than actual patients waiting to be seen. So the whole 'I can't get an appointment because of immigrants' line was certainly not the case on that occasion. Having been involved in countless appointments and phone queues with that place, it's more about the bureaucracy than availability of appointments – especially because there seem to be about 15 doctors on the books.

Transport-wise, a bit further back in time, there was the extension of the A27 bypass (Southwick tunnel and all that jazz), a road which is now currently undergoing a further upgrade to the west of that addition.

So why does it take six weeks for me to get an appointment to see my GP at this practice?

 

[CheeseRolls]

The council has spent and is spending millions and millions putting the cycle lane in from Brighton to Worthing, fitted the new foot/cycle bridge to accomodate the cycle lane, moved the Yacht Club ONLY to install a cycle lane, the whole Shoreham Port Developments have the instructions to provide a cycle lane etc...

Anyway, if i get rid of our family car (I dont have one personally), that will help get new schools, new Drs, more dentists, sort out the water and sewage issues? Great. Lets go for it then.

(I ride a motorbike btw)

The footbridge was end of life and needed to be replaced and the Yacht Club was moved as part of the Lower Adur flood defences. The opportunity to add a cycle lane was a secondary benefit to both schemes and has not yet been delivered around the yacht club.

As far as I can tell the vast majority of any cycling related council expenditure seems to go on endless rounds of consultation and very little action.

 

[Lush]

I used to live in Rustington, a vibrant thriving (well it was until the banks left) village.

But if you actually look at what's normal around the shops, it's insane.

Free carpark to the north.
Free carpark to the east.
Shops surrounding a t junction.

There are shops.
6ft of pavement.
Access road.
Parking
narrow strip of pavement.
Grass verge.
Regular pavement.
Main road
Then the same across the other side.

An unbelievable amount of free space dedicated to cars and parked cars for a smallish village.

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It's a long way from the train station, and the big free car park has a two hour limit. It's busy, but you can usually get a space. Decent shops, cafes, bakeries. You can get most things. It's even managing to sustain a Waterstones. That, to my mind, is a successful shopping area.

It really cranks my gears when you have a free car park next to shops that doesn't have a time limit, so is usually full of people who use it as their own private car park or are working nearby. They then wonder why the local shops/cafes that rely on passing trade have closed. Thomas A Becket/Poulters Lane in Worthing is a classic example.

 

[Greg Bobkin]

So why does it take six weeks for me to get an appointment to see my GP at this practice?

I have no idea. All I'm saying that I don't think it's a simple as 'not enough appointments' because the staff are there and, when you REALLY need an appointment, you can get one. We've been told to wait weeks a few times but, are just ballsy and keep on hassling them until they give us a F2F (a phone consulation is often a waste of time!)

 

[Eric the meek]

I have no idea. All I'm saying that I don't think it's a simple as 'not enough appointments' because the staff are there and, when you REALLY need an appointment, you can get one. We've been told to wait weeks a few times but, are just ballsy and keep on hassling them until they give us a F2F (a phone consulation is often a waste of time!)

There was a study a few years ago, I guess around the height of the Brexit arguments, to find out why it took people so long to get a GPs appointment. It found that in some surgeries, there was a small number of patients who booked up multiple appointments in advance, as placeholder appointments, in case they needed them.

 

[Greg Bobkin]

There was a study a few years ago, I guess around the height of the Brexit arguments, to find out why it took people so long to get a GPs appointment. It found that in some surgeries, there was a small number of patients who booked up multiple appointments in advance, as placeholder appointments, in case they needed them.

Yep, I know someone whose friend is a GP and they said that in their surgery alone, something like 10% of the patients accounted for 80% of the appointments. I small fee for each appointment would nip that in the bud, but that's a proper vote-loser policy, so it'll never happen.

 

[tedebear]

Well quite.

I had a conversation with some Shoreham folks in a pub about 4 years ago. I said Shoreham was going to change irreversibly over the next ten years.
They were having none of it. I think in a bid to fool themselves. “I’ve lived here ten years, it hasn’t changed. You don’t know what you’re talking about”. She was rather rude.

I’ve been a very frequent visitor to Shoreham since ‘98 and I’ve lived around here for just under 10 years. It’s really changed.

Amusingly, she has a flat opposite the row of new build blocks that have now shrouded her property in eternal shadow.


Of course, it’s good for a town to move with the times and keep viable.

But all they are doing is whacking up flats with no improvement infrastructure.

That’s strangling the place.

Glad I moved along the road to the much maligned Lancing.

Never have to wait for a GP appointment, got an NHS dentist etc

As long as you don’t mind living alongside some of the ugliest people ever to ride mobility scooters and being three miles from the nearest avocado, it’s good enough.

I wonder who those folks were, we are Shoreham-ites and I don't know anyone who for the last 5 years has agreed with any of the Tory planning decisions here for the simple fact it is changing the town irreparably and that services (doctors, dentists, schools) have not been invested at the same time to keep up with the influx of people. The coast road and the one way roundabout at Ropetackle has been one of the largest issues that is a by product of all of this and addressed by no one. Pop in a few roadworks on feeder roads to this roundabout, bus routes that go down single carriage roads that feed this roundabout and grid lock occurs pretty quickly.

There was a Tory councillor (Stephen Chipp - Soutwick - I think he isn't a Councillor anymore) in Feb 2022 who was chairing the Planning Committe at the Shoreham Community Centre, the vote for one of the developments was split 50/50 and he had the deciding vote. He laughed when he declared this as he said well of course I'm get what I want and he approved it, its all still on youtube as a public record. I think it was the same meeting where he had also cleared the entire public gallery as he didn't seem to like the very relevant points they were making and one person I think jeered him. This is the kind of thing we are up against...

 

[The Clamp]

I wonder who those folks were, we are Shoreham-ites and I don't know anyone who for the last 5 years has agreed with any of the Tory planning decisions here for the simple fact it is changing the town irreparably and that services (doctors, dentists, schools) have not been invested at the same time to keep up with the influx of people. The coast road and the one way roundabout at Ropetackle has been one of the largest issues that is a by product of all of this and addressed by no one. Pop in a few roadworks on feeder roads to this roundabout, bus routes that go down single carriage roads that feed this roundabout and grid lock occurs pretty quickly.

There was a Tory councillor (Stephen Chipp - Soutwick - I think he isn't a Councillor anymore) in Feb 2022 who was chairing the Planning Committe at the Shoreham Community Centre, the vote for one of the developments was split 50/50 and he had the deciding vote. He laughed when he declared this as he said well of course I'm get what I want and he approved it, its all still on youtube as a public record. I think it was the same meeting where he had also cleared the entire public gallery as he didn't seem to like the very relevant points they were making and one person I think jeered him. This is the kind of thing we are up against...

Yep, councillors and developers are determined to wring Shoreham dry.

The folks I was talking to (in the Buck) were just in denial I think. They’d moved to Shoreham fairly recently and didn’t like the idea that

A) their new seaside idyll was being transformed into a crowded Benidorm.

B) they were part of the problem.

I was living in Shoreham at the time and could see how it was heading.

 

[zefarelly]

I doubt there's many similar sized towns in the country that are better served by public transport than SBS. However, I know of several households withing very short walking distance of the station that never use it. They'll drive to Brighton, to Worthing, to work, Gatwick, wherever. It's insane.

As many do, one of said households once moaned to me about having to wait 10 minutes at the level crossing during their journey to Lancing as so many trains went through. Yeah, go figure.

Exactly! We've become so accustomed with the freedom of transporting ourselves that the location of homes and applying for jobs have a very loose relationship with each other. That's right, get a job 45 mins drive from where you live and then spend your life moaning about it.

The problem is that's a leisure route rather than a transport (on a bike) route - Try cycling even moderately quickly between Shoreham town centre and Brooklands.... Always thought the worst thing 'they' did was to make it shared use but I probably understand why, just frustrating.

when I went back to being employed, I drove to Chi every day . .after a year started moaning about it, after 2 I found a local job . . Then an even better closer one, it's just a no brainer for me. . . time is priceless.

Brighton . . . Train, bus, scooter, cycle . . . Only the car when I accidentally spaffed a wad in the hi fi shop and needed to smuggle it home

 

[CheeseRolls]

A humble apology to persecuted seagulls everywhere. Caught the crows in the act - filthy bindippers!

 

[zefarelly]

A humble apology to persecuted seagulls everywhere. Caught the crows in the act - filthy bindippers!

View attachment 177330

Free form Jazz hand rails, nice touch