By HILARY GAVIN
IMAGINE being too scared to get off a Stagecoach bus to cross the road to your home that you’d rather stay onboard for an extra 20 minutes while the driver does his or her rounds in a nearby town before returning to your village.
It’s shameful, I know, but I almost didn’t bat an eyelid when a young mother relayed this story about an elderly woman living in Sidlesham, West Sussex, to parish councillors at their monthly meeting yesterday evening.
The parish council’s Chairman, Martin Mellodey, invited Bex Middleton, whose young daughter goes to the village school, to address yesterday’s meeting and list her many concerns about the “scary” B2145 Chichester to Selsey road.
As a worried Mum, Ms Middleton (who I will call Bex from now on) can be seen in my YouTube video expertly, and passionately, voicing her fears that someone will get KILLED soon if WSCC doesn’t do something to curb speeding and implement urgent road safety measures along the B2145.
We’d reached the point in the agenda of the council meeting, held in the parish rooms tucked away behind the village’s peaceful and idyllic 13th century St Mary’s Church, when Chairman Mellodey learned that Bex had written a list outlining the measures she wanted councillors to consider (5.52mins into YouTube footage).
Chairman Mellodey told Bex, and her companion Jan, that the parish council considered what she had already written to them seriously, admitting: “We have serious problems with traffic, which is not caused by residents, but by people passing through”, adding that “increased density” had worsened matters. Cllr Mellodey told Bex: “Read your list out so we know what we have to deal with.”
I’d invite you to watch Bex of yesterday’s Sidlesham Parish Council meeting on my YouTube footage as she lays out the case to protect herself, her young child and fellow frightened parents, and their schoolchildren, in the village.
In brief, this is BEX’S LIST of road measures to be addressed by parish councillors, as outlined by her at last night’s meeting:
- The 30MPH speed sign approaching Sidlesham from Selsey. Bex told parish councillors that this sign had been OBSCURED by overgrown bushes, hedges etc so motorists couldn’t see it and said that WSCC Highways had to rectify this situation as a matter of LEGAL URGENCY.
- Bex told the meeting that the Slow sign approaching the village wasn’t always flashing, but Cllr Mellodey explained that this was intentional because pausing flashing at times made motorists more aware of it.
- Bex told yesterday’s meeting that there was no school sign at the Keynor Lane turning and suggested that having one would help to slow traffic.
- Bex told the meeting that she would like to see speed limit signs designed by local schoolchildren along Keynor Lane, preferably 20MPH.
- Bex complained that the flashing lights outside the school at Keynor Lane “were never on”, which surprised Cllr Mellodey who explained that the parish council had gone to a lot of trouble to get them. Cllr Nick Wade told Bex that he had seen the lights working. Both he and Bex wondered whether the lights might be operated manually and it was suggested that Bex should discuss the matter with the headmistress there.
- Bex told councillors that there was “a huge problem” with the pathway on Keynor Road because the grass verge was growing onto the concrete and the bushes and hedges were overgrown. Bex said she had “seen parents with newborns in prams” walking along the lane with speeding traffic passing by them and added that the worst section was be alongside the farm with chickens. Cllr Mellodey explained that there were “other issues” concerning this matter.
- Bex told councillors that the yellow lines marking needed painting, which Cllr Mellodey said should have been done but Bex told him this wasn’t the case and she had photographs to back up her claim.
- SPEEDING: Bex told the meeting that speeding traffic through the village was “a massive, massive general issue” in Sidlesham and raised the possibility of WSCC installing a FIXED speeding camera on the B2145 (see footage).
- ZEBRA CROSSING: Bex told parish councillors that villagers couldn’t cross the B2145 road safely at the Manhood Lane turning and suggested WSCC should install a zebra crossing there, or preferably traffic lights. Cllr Mellodey told Bex that crossings in the village had been raised before and revealed that one of the reason WSCC wasn’t keen on them was because “we don’t have lighting in Sidlesham”. Mentioning crossing the road at the Anchor Pub at the entrance of Church and Chalder Lane, Cllr Mellodey mused: “Things move on, we can try again.”
If you watch my YouTube video, which I have posted unedited on social media as a public record, you can hear Bex talking about the elderly villager who stays on the southbound no 51 Stagecoach bus from Chichester to Selsey (14.06mins).
Chairman Mellodey responded to Bex, saying: “I certainly know of the case of this lady,” adding that he was pleased that Bex had raised the matters outlined above to the parish council. He reiterated, as he had earlier in the meeting, that Bex’s road safety measures were too extensive to fully cover yesterday, but the council should form a sub group to go through and discuss Bex’s list.
Cllr Mellodey invited Bex and Jan to join the sub-group, which both women said they would happily do. At this point in the meeting, Bex said she had read the parish council’s website and Paul Bedford’s “brilliant” information.
She specifically mentioned his suggestion that WSCC erect white gates into and out of Sidlesham to make the village look “more like a village than a through-road”.
Bex added: “I think we should keep going until they (WSCC) bow down and say ‘Yes’ and if it needs to be pushed higher to the MPs then why not?” She revealed that she had be in correspondence with Christopher Stark, who she said was head of transport at WSCC, and he was well aware of the problems on the B2145, which he told Bex was in the top FIVE worst roads in the county and was due for a review in 2026/2027.
Cllr Mellodey told Bex that he was pleased that Mr Stark and the council were taking the view that “some things need to be improved”, adding that the council felt it was best to do the easy things first. He then praised The Witterings WSCC councillor Pieter Montyn, who was sat next to Bex at yesterday’s meeting, for “being successful in getting things done”.
Bex suggested that WSCC Highways “come down in the morning to see the carnage” at the village when parents dropped off their children at school partly caused by the overgrown hedges and bushes. She added: “It is very scary for a lot of parents, very, very scary. We just need everyone to push and push and push.”
Cllr Mellodey said: “I think this is a very good synopsis of where we are now, “
Summing up, Bex voiced her frustration about road safety measures in Sidlesham by exclaiming: “Who has to die for the (WSCC) Highways team to stand up and take notice. I hope it’s not me.”
NB: It is now 10.07am on Thursday, June 12th, 2025, and I have to go out now, but I will be back later today to add to this blog post. In the meantime, I hope you have enjoyed reading my report to date.
By HILARY GAVIN
Copyright June 12th, 2025
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Hilary Gavin, Journalist & Writer, T/A Business ‘n’ Commas (sole trader) based in Hunston, PO20 1NY
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