SIR PETER BOTTOMLEY: Worthing, the A27 and the world

The A27 is one of the ways Worthing and the surrounding district interact with the world, including with the rest of England and the United Kingdom.
Sir Peter BottomleySir Peter Bottomley
Sir Peter Bottomley

Tim Loughton MP and I have had an early business breakfast with the Adur and Worthing Chamber of Commerce.

The language schools explained the economic contribution they make. Ricardo were present to confirm that the setting of standards for motor vehicles and for emissions matter.

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Where all, more accurately nearly all, agree is that the A27 difficulties should be dealt with effectively.

Local business and residents come together with MPs and Highways England this Friday at the Pier Pavilion.

This is where the successful campaign for the Worthing and Southlands hospitals had the inaugural meeting.

5,000 came; a portion could be admitted. When we work together, everything is achievable.

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I plan to make clear that it is fanciful and misleading to imagine that a solution could come by creating a northern route through the South Downs National Park.

We do have to recognise that residents with direct access to the A27 may believe that is safe and sustainable.

I have doubts. The risks of injury crashes are highest for them.

After the meeting, I hope the High Salvington residents will invite me to a meeting so we can look forward together.

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They are members of a group who are exposed to unreasonable risk every time they join or leave the A27.

This week, our county of West Sussex will become home at least temporarily for some of the migrants previously living informally near Calais.

Constituents have told me that they welcome Britain’s contribution to those caught up in the chaos of conflict.

The reason to aid trade and development together with stable government, preferably with democracy, is to reduce the numbers escaping grim life at home to have a better life in a new country.

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Across Europe, countries that were previously part of the old USSR have joined the prosperity built in western and northern Europe.

Many of the residents in their retirement years in and around Worthing will have lived and worked abroad.

Their experience, whether as missionaries, teachers, administrators or in the private sectors, will give lessons as to why some countries have done well and why some have gone backwards.

If only political development were as easy as changing the time.

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Clocks change this weekend. Lives would be saved if they did not.

The reason why adding light to the evenings whilst having longer dark hours in the morning is lifesaving together with better lives.

Children tend to go straight to school; more often they do not so often come straight home after school.

Lighter afternoons protect them better.

The elderly also appreciate later light if they choose to be home before dark.

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To those who think this issue is about lining up with much of continental Europe, I offer the advice to look at a map.

Other countries west of much of the UK gain more: the longitude of Portugal, most of Spain and part of France are west of Worthing.

The best news this week has been the indication that Government will spare the media, especially the local press, the imposition of the notorious Section 40 of the Crime and Courts Act 2013.

This provision would mean that any newspaper not signed up to a particular regulator could be made to pay the legal costs of an unsuccessful action for libel.

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Newspapers may make mistakes; an editor may rarely deliberately publish a defamatory true article.

I will defend the right of the media to be wrong. When they are, they should put things right. More importantly, they need the right to be right.

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