A trunk-road services in West Sussex that is in “fundamental need” of highways improvement is set to be comprehensively redeveloped following the submission of a planning application to the local authority.
Buck Barn Services, which serves the A272 and A24, sits 14 miles to the north of Worthing and 45 miles south of London, which bookend the A24 trunk road.
The services features a filling station with a car wash and a McDonald’s with a drive-thru, with the restaurant operating from the same building as the forecourt shop. Parking is offered in front of the shop, and around the side and back of the McDonald’s.
Traffic movements on the site are described as “unsafe and disordered”, with travellers facing issues at every turn.
Entry issues
There are two entrances to the services: one for vehicles travelling northbound on the A24, and one for vehicles using either direction of the A272.
A24 travellers must slow down quickly as they enter the services because the slip road is only 58 metres long, significantly short of the 80-metre minimum required by today’s highway-design standards.
Those entering the services from the A272, meanwhile, use a traffic-light-controlled junction and must then pass by the exit for the McDonald’s car park. Neither this car park exit, nor a separate access road serving four bungalows that faces the McDonald’s exit, are controlled by traffic lights.
Once on the access road and past the McDonald’s car park exit, A272 vehicles must enter the forecourt at an internal junction that requires them to cross the paths of vehicles that are leaving the petrol station.
Exit issues
Everyone leaving the services must use the access road and join the A272 at the traffic-light-controlled junction, passing the bungalow road and the McDonald’s car park exit.
Queues form at the exit “frequently at all times of the day” according to the developers. These queues are partly caused by vehicles leaving the McDonald’s car park having to join the access road, which is occupied by people who have left the services via the forecourt exit, and are already waiting at the lights to leave. These queues create “a knock-on effect [that] is potentially detrimental to the wider highways’ situation”.
As with those entering the services, the access road for the bungalows creates further complication for vehicles departing the services.
On site vehicle movements
Once on site, vehicles can park at the pumps; drive past the pumps and park in front of the amenity building; drive past the pumps and head to the McDonald’s car park; drive around the back of the pumps and head to the McDonald’s car park; or drive around the pumps and exit onto the service road.
Further complicating matters is the rollover car wash and jet wash that sit on the south end of the site, while vehicles are said to frequently park in “non-compliant ways” around the services.
The solution
Given this level of complication, it’s hardly surprising the developers are essentially seeking to tear everything down and start again.
To their advantage is the fact the site is hugely underdeveloped, with 60% of the 3.44-acre plot covered in grass, trees and vegetation.
Assuming the plans meet with approval, the forecourt shop will be rebuilt and expanded with a 6,400sq ft footprint in roughly the same location it occupies now, with 48 dedicated parking bays sitting where the McDonald’s car park currently resides.
The McDonald’s itself will be rebuilt as a standalone 4,200sq ft restaurant with drive-thru with parking for 41 vehicles, taking up most of the land currently given over to green space to the south of the plot.
The rest of that green space will be taken up by a new car wash, as well as 20 additional parking bays and two EV charging points, while a separate 1,800sq ft Costa with drive-thru with 22 parking spaces is also proposed.
A new 80-metre slip road will be built for the A24, with the developers consulting with Horsham District Council’s highway department for this, while a mini-roundabout in the centre of the services will rationalise vehicle movements on site.
The junction with the A272 will be “retained as existing”, with the removal of the McDonald’s exit at this point alleviating the traffic issues that currently exist here.
