A27: Portchester residents at their "wits end" as Cams Hill bus lane project continues to cause "utter chaos"

Motorists have been dealing with huge tailbacks, traffic light infrastructure faults and drivers using residential streets as "rat runs". Hampshire County Council (HCC) is carrying out a £10m scheme to create a bus lane between Fareham and Portsmouth, while upgrading walking and cycling routes, crossing points and creating a segregated cycle path near Cams Hill School.

The project started in October 2023 and has not been a popular introduction. Police have had to set up patrols and implement measures to try and stop motorists from blocking the main junction where the temporary road layout is. One lane is currently closed at the Delme roundabout and duel carriageway – with the area coned off. Several accidents have been reported in the area.

Residents have been left aghast that nearby streets such as The Causeway, St Catherine's Way and Down End Road are seeing dual carriageway levels of traffic, as motorists attempt to avoid the roadworks. The situation has been described as "absolute chaos" by many who are often unable to park on their driveway or spend over an hour getting to nearby places such as Whiteley, Titchfield and Fareham. A petition was set up in opposition to the bus lane project.

More concerned residents have got in touch with The News to describe their experiences. Steve Turner, a Portchester resident who works in Gosport, told The News: "Almost every day I see people jumping the queue by using the Downend Road lane and then pushing their way in. They do it because they know that there will be no consequences."

Mr Turner said he has been using the A27 to drive to Gosport for two and half years and has never seen buses have difficulties on the route. "I honestly don't understand why this work had to happen," he added. "No one asked for it, it was just inflicted on us. From what I can tell, this stretch of road will not go back to being a dual carriageway as it was before, so this is a new permanent bottleneck. I think there is enough public anger to make the council think about what they've done and how they are going to correct their mistakes."

Paul Ives, of Fareham - who has two children who go to Cams Hill School - said he is at a "total loss" as to why the project was put forward. He added that he has to pick up and drop off his children in safer places in order to not let them use the road crossing near the school, which pupils have to use due to nearby pedestrian footpaths being shut. "The impact this has had on the community has been nothing short of utter chaos," he added.

"I frequently see drivers jumping the lights or failing to indicate correctly, and now 100s of children are being forced to use the crossing due to this ridiculous roadworks. I pray that there isn't an accident and god forbid an incident involving a child."

Jillian Andrews, of Highlands Road - who works at Queen Alexandra Hospital - said her journey home from the NHS park and ride car park at Fort Southwick now takes over an hour when it used to be 20 minutes. She added: "What happens is when people are sat in incredibly long traffic queues they become very frustrated and takes silly risks or do down right stupid irresponsible things like jump red lights or completely block the junction at the end of Down End Road.

"The queue to the lights at the bottom of Down End Road to join the A27 is so long it often takes me six changes of the lights to get through, and because drivers are trying to join the sideroads turn off into sideroads that are blocked by queuing traffic, drivers get very frustrated and do silly things. like pulling out and completely blocking the road or speeding passed on the wrong side of the road to turn into a side road I feel it is only a matter of time before I witness a serious accident."

Beth Harris said: "I am just at my wits end. The effect this project is having on local residents and commuters is awful and likely to get worse. I literally get stuck in traffic sitting on my own drive trying to get to work." Ms Harris said Hampshire County Council has spent millions of pounds of taxpayers money on something which residents do not want, and the scheme is causing ambulances to get stuck in traffic while responding to emergencies. "Reducing traffic lanes to incorporate a bus lane for buses that are not needed," she said. "All in the name of trying to be ‘greener’. Well all the cars sitting in the traffic jams will work wonders for air quality."

Martin Keech, who lives on The Causeway - which has now seen a huge influx of cars - said residents' concerns on the issues have been ignored and "no one gives a damn". He added: "Through traffic is speeding through our road, when it isn’t gridlocked with parked queueing traffic, people are queuing over our driveways so we cant even get out of our homes, and people are even queuing next to parked cars, blocking the throughway for opposing traffic. I would encourage the people who approved this ridiculous project to try and drive down our usually quiet road in rush hours, and see how they get on. The whole thing is a disgrace."

Portchester ward councillors under Fareham Borough Council (FBC) have been inundated with letters and emails from concerned residents, despite it being a HCC project. Councillor Chrissie Bainbridge, Liberal Democrat for Portchester East, said the issue has been her biggest postbag item and she's had lots of reports from people saying it is money being wasted. "It is very busy during peak times," she said. "A police presence at peak times would be helpful. We’ve talked to contractors about the traffic light sequencing, because sometimes that doesn’t work.”

Ms Bainbridge said the traffic infrastructure around the roadworks has been "poorly managed", but does not expect the scheme to be shelved. "An awful lot of the problems are caused by impatient drivers, and cars blocking the box junction when the traffic lights change. I’ve seen traffic this bad on the A27 when the M27 is closed, but it has never been this bad consistently. It is now about managing the roadworks, rather than ending them."

Councillor Nick Adams-King, HCC executive lead member for universal services, previously said "significant benefits" will be brought to the local community despite short term disruption.