£6.4m overhaul of Hayling Island's roads unveiled to avert gridlock after 1,000 new homes are built

Mill Rythe, West Lane, Northney Road and Langstone Road would be overhauled in the £4.25m proposal to soften the blow of the local plan.

Havant Borough Council has also suggested a £2.217m package of 11 measures to crack down on island queues and road safety concerns.

Funding for the changes would come from the Community Infrastructure Levy paid by developers, including a top-up fee Hampshire County Council can ask them to pay as the authority for roads.

The extra sum is asked of developers in areas where new homes would cause ‘severe harm' to infrastructure in its current state.

Councillor Tim Pike, Havant's boss for planning, said: ‘This assessment means we now have the right tools to deliver considerable improvements to the roads and other routes across Hayling Island.

‘This kind of opportunity happens once in a generation and I am determined these improvements take place in order to help Hayling Island to continue to prosper and develop.’

He added: ‘A considerable amount of work has been done to find out what infrastructure is needed and to ensure this is realistic and deliverable and I hope Hayling residents are heartened now we have this in place.

‘We share residents’ concerns that infrastructure improvements are absolutely fundamental and they must either keep pace with the growth of housing or ideally be in place ahead of it. We now have the tools to do this.’

At Mill Rythe, the changes would see traffic lights put at the junction of Manor Road and Church Road, with a small roundabout at Kings Road.

West Lane’s junction would be moved and later signalised, with a three-stage pedestrian crossing in place and some junction priorities amended.

A new southbound left turn, separate from Havant Road, would take drivers down Northney Road – with new right turns in and out to follow.

Meanwhile it is suggested the northbound two-lane section of Langstone Road is extended by 170m and the southbound merge into one lane is moved further south, away from Woodbury Close.

SEE ALSO: Fears for erosion on Hayling Island as council gets set to remove broken sea defences at West Beach

The council said the changes would reduce queues, make roads safer and stop peak journey times from becoming more than 15 per cent worse.

But Dave Parham, chairman of the Save Our Island group, fears the plans would ‘distribute pain' and fail to remedy A3023 capacity woes.

‘It is possible that the changes they have suggested will relieve pressure on the intra-island network,' Mr Parham said.

‘But it's our belief the capacity of that road [A3023] is going to be reached.

‘They have chosen to ignore the main concern – the capacity of that road.’

Cllr Pike said the plan 'takes into consideration the potential population growth of the island’.

Proposed friction reduction measures include a host of new right turns, including a new lane for the Ship Inn, and new bus lay-bys and pull-ins.