Horsham District Council have scheduled a temporary complete closure of the Storrington Mill Lane car park from 1am on Wednesday 20 July 2022 until 6pm Wednesday 27 July 2022 to finish their refurbishment work. The Waitrose store will re-open at 8am on Thursday 28 July 2022.
The Senior Projects Engineer at the Council has provided an explanation of the work below.
If you have any views, comments or questions about the new design, please address them to:
carparkteam@horsham.gov.uk (tel. 01403 215379)
or to our Storrington District Councillors
Rural Car Park Works Programme
Before the annual rural parking disc scheme was introduced in 2017, a condition survey was commissioned to inform a programme of rural car park improvements which include resurfacing, improved LED lighting, preparing for EV charging, new street furniture, signage, landscaping and an increase in the number of bays where possible.
Customers using Steyning Fletchers Croft and Henfield Library car parks have already benefited from similar reinvestment with improved layouts, an increase in capacity and new surfacing.
Design Consideration
When considering these upgrades, general and local considerations are included in determining the final design. These include such items as visibility and safety for customers and pedestrians, existing layouts and conflict points, current parking standards, widths of bays and running roads.
For Mill Lane, there were also a number of local issues such as the access road, Waitrose delivery bay, tight vehicle movements, separate parking areas in Mill Lane and the Blue Badge parking, through traffic from Mill Lane, trolley parking, high walled planters adjacent to the bays, and location of the Pay & Display machines and the village information sign.
During the design process, various design layouts were considered which included both an east/west or north/south layout, together with or without the separate Mill Lane area, planters, marked footways, the cut through from Mill Lane and the location for blue badge parking.
In terms of capacity, the existing layout is 125 marked bays with 6 blue badge spaces. With over half of the existing 125 bays, and 5 of the 6 blue badge bays below current standards, if the existing layout was to remain, this would result in the loss of 8 parking spaces meaning there would be 117 marked bays with 6 blue badge spaces.
In order to maximise the number of spaces available in what is a very tight location, and having considered the different layouts and safety concerns, a north/south layout with the maximum 120 marked bays and 6 blue badge spaces was selected. This layout also addresses safety concerns identified during the design process.
As is the usual practice, consultation on the options available was undertaken with local Ward Councillors and the Parish Council.
Planters
Another design consideration was the location and height of brick planters being adjacent to the existing bays. With the modern vehicle being over 150mm wider than when the car park was first laid out, this can result in vehicles having to straddle the adjacent bay in-order to use that space.
It was decided before attempting to move the weeping birch tree, to seek the advice of the Council’s Tree Officer. His report suggested that whilst nothing is impossible, this was getting pretty close, with so many factors working against a successful replanting.
Rather than attempting the move, which might not be successful anyway, and in-order to mitigate the loss of planting due to the works, new heavy standard (3.00m to 3.50m approximate height) Himalayan birch trees are to be planted this November in Old Mill Drive.
Works Completion
During the works, the car park has remained open to the public albeit at a reduced capacity. However, as the work nears completion it will be necessary to close the car park to vehicles so construction works can be undertaken safely. This closure, which is required for the final resurfacing, has been pushed back from the previously advertised date to tie in with the revised Waitrose store closure, and is now scheduled for 1am on Wednesday 20 July 2022 until 6pm Wednesday 27 July 2022.
The most recent layout design available is the one published by HDC at the beginning of May:
