MOTORISTS will face a traffic nightmare if plans for a new development go ahead, according to residents.

A public consultation on a huge scheme in Lancing, to include an IKEA, a school and 600 homes, received almost universal criticism for its road scheme.

Martin Hynchcliffe, chairman of the Offington Park residents’ association, said: “The A27 has got a problem because of volume and this will only worsen that.”

June Knight, who lives in Manor Way near the proposed scheme, said: “Once you get all that extra traffic it’s going to be an absolute nightmare.”

There are plans to replace the Sussex Pad traffic lights with a roundabout.

But Geoff Cobby, 70, said: “I live in the area, and that road from Lancing Manor is chock-a-block in both directions in the mornings and in the evenings already.

“Once you’ve got the traffic from another 600 homes, well it’s a total non-starter. It’s totally wrong for the area.”

The plans, revealed in The Argus on Thursday include proposals for 600 houses on a site bounded to the north by the A27 and to the west by Grinstead Lane.

Business leaders have welcomes plans to transform the area and hope that the IKEA store will draw people in and make them stay longer in the area.

Yesterday more than 100 residents filed around the Queen Elizabeth room of the Shoreham Centre to view a series of large maps and artists’ impressions of the new development.

Although most seemed happy with the plans for an IKEA, almost none seemed keen on the plans for so many new homes so close to a congested road.

Chris Hargreaves, traffic consultant for the New Monks Farm project team, stressed that the council’s local plan allowed for the housing construction on that site. He said the road layout changes had been made to allow for the traffic flow.

However he acknowledged that the increased demand would make the traffic on the A27 worse unless Highways England goes ahead with planned improvements to the whole A27 corridor.

These include plans to change the Grinstead Lane junction.

He said that the construction of the roundabout at the Sussex Pad would take approximately a year, but that traffic would be able to pass across for much of that period.

The public consultation will be followed by a formal planning application.