A120 Highways Agency Proposal

The Highways Agency’s Consultation Document is totally unacceptable to the residents of the Villages affected by the ‘Proposed Southern Route’. By identifying a proposed route instead of a number of alternatives the H.A. has prejudiced the consultation before any legitimate conclusion can be reached.

The proposed Southern Route is the worst possible choice and completely devastates the villages of Cressing and Feering and severely affects the village of Silver End. What right does the H.A. have to select a route? Surely it must be the residents of Essex who should have this power.

The Southern route is ill conceived and is clearly proposed as the easiest solution for the H.A. and to allow the maximum revenue for Braintree Council, providing the greatest amount of development land north of the proposed route.

By sighting one of the main junctions at Cressing Tye Green and the other at Feering the Highways Agency has shown that they have completely misunderstood the traffic problems in the area. If the ‘Southern Route’ is selected the current congestion at Galleys Roundabout will not decrease but will significantly increase as traffic travelling to Free Port, Braintree and Witham fight with traffic trying to get on to the new junction.

It is obvious that the only place for this junction is to the north of Galleys Roundabout, thus separating the A120 traffic from the local traffic.

It is clear the Project Objectives and Environmental Considerations identified by the Highways Agency are completely frivolous and they have chosen to propose a route which blights the maximum number of villages and residents but does not provide any benefits to the local people.

Yours truly,                                         

Alan Perry