Southern Water Tankers in West Ashling and Funtington this Winter

Although Southern Water are making great progress on their works to seal a lot of the underground sewer pipes in Funtington, no-one can be sure that this will completely remove the need for tanker lorries in Watery Lane and West Ashling village during the winter months when the groundwater level is high. Southern Water’s project will take a few more years to complete, and as we learned last month, they also need to know about any properties that might be mistakenly putting rainwater or cellar water into the sewer pipes too (so please contact them or the Parish Council if you think this might be you).  

In anticipation, we’ve been liaising with Southern Water all summer to come up with the best way to accommodate their tankers if they do need to use them, and, well, there just isn’t one. 

For Watery Lane, the only viable option is that they again park the tankers half way between the villages and, unfortunately, this winter the road will close to all traffic – cars, pedestrians, cyclists, horse riders, everyone – all the way along. There will still be access for residents/visitors to properties at the southern end, and continued access for footpath users (more on that in a sec) but otherwise, closed will mean closed. 

In West Ashling, Mill Road will close to all vehicle traffic to allow tankers to park and pump by the pond. There will still be access for pedestrians, cyclists and horse riders back and forth along Mill Road to Down Street and to the footpath entrance on Watery Lane. 

We don’t know if tankers will be needed, nor where yet, but if Watery Lane should close then getting between West Ashling and Funtington will only be via the footpath from the pond, across the field, to the church. So Nick Baird has kindly agreed to prepare the footpath for winter use by topping the grass and putting chippings down where it gets very muddy so it’s accessible for a lot more people; but the nature of the path is that it will always be lumpy and muddy in places.  

Detailed road closure plans from Southern Water will be published here on the Parish Council website when they become available. 

None of this is ideal of course, but there is just no alternative in the short term. So better to be prepared, and please offer a lift or car share to those you know who are needing to get to church, the village hall, or to the primary school.  

Jason Boswell