 We're bringing our innovative Greenprint project to highway verges in Aldwick, Bersted, Horsham and Pagham this growing season, to explore the benefits of managing them in a different way.
Instead of leaving grass cuttings on the ground, we’re collecting them and investigating recycling them into something useful, such as biofuels and road surfacing materials.
Collecting the grass cuttings should also slow down grass growth and encourage a wider variety of plant life and pollinators, boosting local biodiversity.
The project has been funded by the Department for Transport through the Association of Directors of Environment, Economy, Planning and Transport’s (ADEPT’s) Live Labs 2 innovation programme.
ADEPT Live Labs 2: Decarbonising Local Roads in the UK is a three-year, UK-wide £30 million programme funded by the Department for Transport that aims to decarbonise the local highway network.
Find out more on the link below or watch our short video on Greenprint.
A new campaign from THINK!, aimed at helping parents prepare their children for independent travel when they move up to secondary school has highlighted road casualty data that shows child pedestrian casualties more than double between the ages of 9 to 11. Data for West Sussex shows that during 2022 and 2023, there were 40 children aged 9-12 injured whilst walking on our roads.
We're asking parents to practice these steps with their children...
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- Eyes Up 👁️👁️ – Look around, avoid distractions (put your phone away)
- Slow Down 🐢 – Never run across the road, assess the traffic
- Cross Safely 🚶♀️ – Avoid parked cars, use a pedestrian crossing if there is one
 Last year, Sidlesham School near Chichester had a number of concerns regarding inconsiderate and illegal parking behaviour outside the school at drop off and pick up times. Parents were blocking footways and children/parents were forced to walk in the road. The Local Transport Improvements Group met with the school, the Parish Council, and the local County Councillor to design an improvement to address these issues. The scheme has delivered:
- A new School Safety Zone incorporating flashing warning lights
- A series of bollards and dropped crossings to protect pedestrian space
- Cleared a large amount of vegetation to reclaim existing pavement pace and make footways usable again
- Refreshed existing school keep clear and restriction markings in the area.
It has been 3 months since the scheme was delivered and has since continued safer access to school.
 The local community, with support from the local councillor, submitted a Community Highway Scheme application to improve the safety and experience of pedestrians moving from College Road up to the green spaces located near St. Peter’s Church Centre and the centre itself. Their application was successful in being selected and put into action by West Sussex County Council.
The Highway Improvements team delivered improvements to pedestrian facilities throughout the village, including path widening and resurfacing, new pedestrian crossings, crossing improvements for vulnerable users and asset protection from vehicle overrun and obstruction. The scheme benefited from close with the local community.
 A partnership between Metrobus (Go Ahead), West Sussex County Council, Surrey County Council, Kent County Council and London Gatwick has gained funding to launch a new fleet of 43 hydrogen powered buses. WSCC led the partnership, put the scheme together and produced the bid that was successful in winning £10 million of government funding.
The buses will operate across a wide area of Sussex, Surrey and Kent to connect rural areas with local towns and London Gatwick. Destinations will include Burgess Hill, Crawley, East Grinstead, Haywards Heath, Horsham, Worthing, Brighton, Caterham, Dorking, Redhill and Tunbridge Wells.
When fully operational, it will be one of the biggest fleets of hydrogen powered buses in the country and the only one operating in rural areas.
 Pictured: Cllr Joy Dennis, Cabinet Member for Highways and Transport (left), with county council officer Liz Robbins, who is leading on the rollout of the new Real Time Passenger Information displays. They are pictured at a bus stop in Barnham Road, Eastergate. Cllr Dennis is testing the audio push-button facility, which will make bus travel easier for passengers with visual impairments, learning or reading difficulties.
WSCC formed a partnership with local bus operators in 2021 to develop the Bus Service Improvement Plan (BSIP). The aim of the plan is to improve bus services in West Sussex and reverse the Covid related shift in journeys away from public transport and encourage passengers back to bus travel. The West Sussex BSIP is due to be updated later this year and projects underway so far include:
- Installing 425 Real Time Passenger Information screens across the county
- Long term infrastructure improvements to bus stops, dedicated bus lanes and traffic priority signalling at various locations
- 16 to 20 Bus Saver – a new fare discount scheme for young people in West Sussex
- New Stagecoach 500 bus route between Chichester and Littlehampton via Barnham
- Digital-demand responsive services connecting rural areas around Chichester, Midhurst and Petworth
 On the northern edge of Haywards Heath the Volunteer Rangers gave a bridge a complete refurbishment and some blocked drainage channels where cleared to help prevent future flooding.
In Earnley, the Access Ranger liaised with landowner to return a footpath to the legal line which had become overgrown. The path was cleared and new signage put up to ensure the route is clearly marked.
To allow a footpath in Billingshurst to remain open whilst the landowner carried-out repairs to their farm bridge, the Access Ranger asked for a plank crossing to be installed as a temporary measure. Once the main bridge works are completed, the planks will be removed and used elsewhere. Slightly further North an old section of boardwalk was identified as needing improving, so a longer version was installed with a handrail.
In Warnham, Volunteer Rangers removed over 450m of redundant and dilapidated fence which had fallen into the bridleway.
Lastly, in Pyecombe, under the terms of a permissive agreement for a bridleway, a new gate was installed with the addition of a long-handled latch and overgrown vegetation cut back to allow room for manoeuvring - making the gate much easier to pass through for bridleway users.
The Highway Works Programme for 24/25 has now been published on the Council’s web site.
 Between October 2023 and February 2024, we had more rain in 5 months that we would normally have in a whole year. March didn’t show much improvement, and in fact in some West Sussex areas, we saw 3 times the rain we normally expect. In these conditions potholes can form as water seeps under the road surface and saturating the substrate which leads to a hydraulic effect as vehicles pass over.
As a result, we are receiving very high numbers of customer reports. At this moment, our teams are working over-time and our contractor’s gangs are working twilight shifts and Saturdays to manage the increased number of safety repairs. In addition, we have ‘find and fix’ gangs who are predominately operating in urban areas and, when weather permits, we continue to run a Jet Patcher in more rural areas.
We continue to focus on quality ‘Sides Sawn and Sealed’ repairs. Although these repairs take longer, they should last longer. Inevitably, with the amount of water we have on the network some repairs may fail. In terms of drainage, in our normal cleansing programme we have cleansed 90,000 gullies this year. In addition, we have 4 gully suckers operating across the network carrying reactive work to alleviate flooding issues. They have tackled over 600 jobs on our highest priority sites.
If you spot a pothole that is an immediate risk to public safety, phone 01243 642105. You can report an emergency 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. For all other reports, visit our website.
Produced by the Stakeholder and Partnerships Officer, Highways Transport and Planning. Please contact active.communities@westsussex.gov.uk with any comments or suggestions.
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