Couple spend 13 years trying to get Lyminster Bypass flooding fixed.

Residents of a cottage near a recently built bypass claim they had lobbied the council for 13 years to address flooding issues.

Barney Brown and his wife live in a cottage on the A284, Lyminster Road, near the northern end of the Lyminster bypass.

The £50 million bypass, opened in May 2025, aims to reduce traffic congestion in Wick and Lyminster.

The plan was supported by the Coast to Capital Local Enterprise Partnership Local Growth Fund, developer contributions, the Department of Transport, and the county council.

The bypass also featured a one-of-a-kind Pegasus crossing that pedestrians, bicycles, horses, and agricultural vehicles could use to cross the road.

Barney has been “wrestling” with West Sussex County Council about floods near his cottage for the past 13 years.

The 69-year-old moved into his cottage in 2004 and experienced no troubles at first. After ten years, however, problems arose.

Every winter, the cottage’s driveway and pavement outside the property are persistently flooded.

“The pavement is like a quagmire of water, mud and silt that pedestrians and cyclists now have to navigate,” Barney told reporters.

“Our driveway is pitted with pools of water collecting from springs coming up through the earth. “The drainage water has to go somewhere because if the pipe is blocked, it must come up through the ground.”

To make matters worse, the property’s garage, which Barney partially uses to store his collection of vintage toys, has flooded.

Following years of complaints, Barney claims that the municipality finally decided to send out a drainage team for an examination.

The team uncovered 80 metres of “decaying Victorian drainage pipes” that needed to be replaced, as well as clogs caused by tree roots.

The clogs remained, and the pipes had not been rebuilt, so three years later, the problem persists, and Barney claims he is constantly “fobbed off”.

He stated, “They can spend £50 million on a bypass, but here we are 13 years later with a flooding issue that none of them have been able to address.” It should have been resolved before the bypass opened.

“After I wrote to my MP Andrew Griffiths, the director of West Sussex County Council wrote to him to say it had been scheduled for the following fiscal year, and so on.” It never ends.

“You’d think after 13 years, they’d have figured something out. All the cliches and hollow promises. I’ve been informed by several people that this will be done.

“They celebrate themselves on this beautiful bypass, which cost £50 million at taxpayer expense, but the congestion at Crossbush is even worse than it was before.

“This is a big chunk of my life that this has been going on for and which I can’t see any end to.”

A West Sussex County Council representative stated, “Residents of Cobweb Cottage informed us of recurring drainage difficulties in this area. Our initial inspections in February 2023 revealed several serious flaws in the local drainage system.

“Since then, we’ve conducted additional rigorous reviews and created a comprehensive improvement plan. This includes jetting and CCTV surveying, root cutting, pipe lining, various excavations and repairs, and the construction of a new outfall to optimise system performance.

“We plan to deliver these works during the next financial year (2026/27) and are currently working with our contractor to secure necessary road space and permits. While we cannot confirm specific dates, we are confident that the planned program will resolve long-standing issues at this location.”