THE FORMATION of a new regional transport body to drive through major road and rail improvements has been met with “absolute horror” and concern from councillors.

Transport committee members have voted for Brighton and Hove City Council to become a member for a shadow Sub National Transport Body for the South East (SNTB).

But in agreeing to the move, councillors raised concerns about how vast the group would be taking in members from Berkshire to Hampshire and the Isle of Wight.

Green councillors also raised concerns that the new body would only promote huge new road and rail projects that would be invasive into people’s quality of life.

But council officers warned councillors that being outside of the fledgling body could see the city miss out on major investment.

The SNTB is being proposed as the main body to influence how and where Highways England and Network Rail invest in the region.

Council officials said it would give greater involvement for the city council in transport decisions than it currently enjoys.

It would include seven authorities including Brighton and Hove, East Sussex and West Sussex councils as well as port, airport and bus operators.

Conservative group leader Geoffrey Theobald said he read the proposals with “absolute horror” claiming it harked back to the previous South East England Regional Assembly which had delivered the city region only one road in 30 years.

He questioned what shared interests the city had with Hampshire, the Isle of Wight or Berkshire.

He said: “What real interest do we have in the A34, A3 and M27 and more importantly what interest will they have in what’s important to us such as the A23, M23, A27 and the railway up to London?”

But fellow Conservatives Lee Wares and Joe Miller but said it would be better to be part of the group to see what it was about than to be outside the body and miss out.

Council officers told councillors the authority did not start the process but had received signals from the department of transport that councils were expected to form regional bodies and warned there could be a risk of the council missing out on funding if they were not members.

Green councillor Louisa Greenbaum said there was a shortage of information on the project and that it was currently unclear what the benefits of the scheme might be.