Hassocks Traffic and Parking Update

Back in 2013 Hassocks Parish Council invited residents to complete a survey to better understand the issues around parking and traffic flow in Hassocks. The final report approved by council in June 2013 made a number of recommendations which sought to improve Traffic Flow and to rebalance parking more in favour of residents and visitors to the village centre.

Since then the Parish has been engaging with WSCC to find ways of delivering these improvement against a backdrop of significant cuts in funding for Roads and Highways. A reduced scheme which included some of the recommended measures was finally put on display at the Parish Centre for public Consultation in May 2016.

Strong feedback from the community following the consultation identified that the proposed scheme did not meet expectations and a subsequent public meeting reaffirmed that many of the original parking proposals were still required. The WSCC public notices appearing around Hassocks in February 2018 relate to this first stage of the scheme and involve relatively modest changes to the existing restrictions. These will improve traffic flow in a number of roads and increase short term parking around the Keymer Road shopping area nearest to the station.

Following further consultation with residents and subsequent meetings with WSCC – we asked formally for a second stage to the scheme in October 2017. With support from our County Councillor and the offer of a financial contribution from the Parish, WSCC Highways agreed to work on a second stage to include additional restrictions around the station and in a few other places where inconsiderate parking was causing problems.

This second stage will include restrictions designed to improve parking availability for residents and will go out for initial consultation shortly to allow feedback to be considered during the final design by WSCC Highways.

It is important to emphasise that the aim of this project has always been to rebalance parking back in favour of local residents and visitors yet still recognise the need to accept commuters whose use of Hassocks Station enables the village to enjoy a better level of train service.