11 February 2005
Following the latest public exhibitions of the Highways Agency proposal for a massive £220 million 4 lane A120 and section of 6 lane A12 through the countryside, local people and councillors are pointing to inaccuracies and flaws in the consultation and the proposals.
The Green Party were leaked the southern route for the A120 several years ago and have since been warning that the route could be linked to major development on Rivenhall Airfield, the site of mineral extraction and an allocated Major Waste Site in the Essex Waste Plan. Yet the Highways Agency's official consultation document makes no mention of the allocated waste site, even though their route passes close to it.
The Agency consultation document also claims that their proposal will "take much of the traffic away from residential areas". Yet because their scheme does not bypass Bradwell, considerable through traffic would remain and many more people would be exposed to the traffic noise and pollution from a major road - in Tye Green, Cressing, Silver End and north Feering - who currently live in rural areas.
The Agency also claim that their scheme would not directly affect areas of environmental interest and that their route goes through areas of "low ecological value". In fact their route passes through good quality farmland, close to identified sites of interest, with a wealth of hedges, small woods and streams. The area is hugely popular with local people for its country walks and "big skies". It is well known for its wildlife including deer, woodpeckers, owls, songbirds, herons, hares, bats and ground mammals. When questioned, Highways Agency environmental representatives had little knowledge of this diversity yet referred to "environmental studies" they had carried out.
The Agency have failed to even mention in their official consultation document that their road proposal cuts straight through the River Blackwater Special Landscape Area, as defined in the Adopted Braintree District Local Plan. Braintree District Council's policy for this area states
(BDP 62 part) "Special Landscape Areas have been defined to embrace broad areas of scenic attraction (including the Blackwater). Within SLAs, inappropriate development will be refused."
The nearly completed Local Plan Review states
(RLP 74 part) "Development likely to cause permanent loss or damage to the traditional rural qualities of the countryside, or its essential landscape character will be refused, especially in SLAs (including the Blackwater)".
At the exhibition held today at the Institute, High Street, Kelvedon, local residents handed out protest leaflets and have started a yellow ribbon campaign to draw attention to the devastation to the rural environment that the Highways Agency plans threaten. Inside the exhibition there were many complaints and heated discussions about the Agency's choice of which information it has put into the consultation, dismay at the blight on their houses and accusations that the consultation questionnaire is "loaded" by failing to ask balanced questions.
Cllr. James Abbott, Green Braintree District Councillor for a ward cut through by the road proposal joined campaigners at the exhibition today for several hours. He said
"From the many calls and e-mails I have had and from the feedback from the exhibition today, I think the Highways Agency may be getting a flavour of the controversy they have stirred up. They could have avoided this by consulting with communities on a genuine set of evenly weighted options, as we were told by them they would do.
Their consultation has the potential to be misleading, but it is also flawed. For example it is either deliberately misleading or a woeful error not to identify the known and allocated location of the Major Waste Site on Rivenhall Airfield when they have identified a large range of other designations and local features.
More seriously, it is now clear from their own traffic data, that because they have failed to offer a bypass for Bradwell village, substantial flows of traffic will continue to go through the village even if they get their way and build their major road.
At the exhibition, Agency staff admitted to me that their A120 scheme was a major strategic highway linked to the growth of Stansted Airport and that much of the local traffic on the existing A120 route corridor would keep using the existing road through Bradwell. So our rural areas will be cut by two roads, each carrying substantial flows of traffic. Many more people than at present will suffer noise pollution and Bradwell will NOT get the full relief it deserves from through traffic.
Spending £220 million to not achieve stated aims does not sound like good value for the public's money. This consultation is flawed. We also now have confirmation that strategic issues such as Stansted are higher up the Agency priorities, but not those of communities who actually live here."
Note: The Greens are consultating on an alternative route proposal that includes a bypass for Bradwell and then mostly on-line improvements along the existing A120. It does not advocate widening the A12 and will result in far less take of countryside than the Highways Agency proposal.
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