A COMMUNITY group says plans for the new Arundel bypass route will "destroy both countryside and the community".

The South Coast Alliance for Transport and the Environment (SCATE) have expressed their fury at the new road, that would avoid the South Downs National Park.

The community group said highway officials have ignored proposals for an affordable, low impact solution to the bypass.

Instead, Highway England has chosen a "climate-wrecking dual carriageway" that will cause "serious destruction of landscape and wildlife".

The Argus: Map shows the preferred route in grey.Map shows the preferred route in grey.

Jean Norton secretary of Arundel SCATE said the plans ignore warnings from environmental campaigner Sir David Attenborough. 

She said: "This announcement flies in the face of all the evidence about what we need to do to tackle climate change and loss of wildlife.

"Highways England seem to be on a different planet, ignoring the warnings of Sir David Attenborough and others that we need to do things differently. 

"Building bigger roads just increases traffic and carbon emissions. In this case it will also destroy valuable wildlife habitats, local communities and the setting of the South Downs National Park.

“We don’t need a new, highly expensive, dual carriageway. Highways England is a road-building company. Why are we letting it dictate our travel choices?

The Argus:

We need better transport and money earmarked for the road would be better spent on access for everyone.”

Five of the six options for the A27 near Arundel would have involved building new roads in the South Downs National Park but the new prefered route will go south of the national park.

Arundel is a regular bottleneck on the A27, with 21,000 journeys made each day.

Original proposals to replace a bottleneck stretch of single carriageway were met with protest in 2017.

More than 1,600 people attended the 2019 consultation exhibitions, with Highway England receiving 4,945 response forms as well as 113 other written responses.

A spokesman for Highways England said: "The plans include a new five-mile dual carriageway which will draw traffic away from Arundel and reduce rat-running on minor roads through the national park.

"The new bypass will complete a missing link in the A27, the only major east to west route south of the M25, and avoids the South Downs national park completely."