The official responsible for Essex’s roads has admitted drivers will face years more A127 traffic misery because the road is too busy and councils can’t afford to domuch about it.

Paul Bird, Essex County Council’s director of commissioning for transport and infrastructure, made the frank admission in response to recent Echo coverage of problems with the main road in and out of Southend.

After winning £25million of Government cash to improve four key A127 junctions County Hall has admitted this will only address short and medium-term issues with the road.

About £17million of that money will go to improve the Fairglen Interchange – where the A127, the A130 and the former A130 meet. More than 70,000 vehicles a day are using it and the scheme is considered a priority.

However, work is not due to start there for four years, because the project will require planning permission, a public inquiry, land acquisition and public consultations.

Mr Bird said the road had “a number of issues”, including: ! The need for major structural maintenance ! Day-to-day delays caused every time an accident happens ! An inability to cope with any extra traffic ! Delays related to problems at key junctions where traffic joins from Southend, Basildon and Chelmsford.

He added: “We agree congestion could be worsened by development, so we are looking to see how the various sections of the route should be prioritised for action. The easiest way to ease congestion is to improve junction capacity, but in the longer term, road widening would be needed.”

Mr Bird said the council might consider bidding for Whitehall cash to add an extra lane to the dual-carriageway.

Even so, he said other councils and private developers would need to chip in.

The Government gave Southend Council and County Hall £25million last July to improve the Kent Elms junction and the Tesco roundabout in Southend, and the Nevendon and Fairglen interchanges.

Mr Bird said the Fairglen junction was “a “key intervention point”, but work to improve it was unlikely to be completed until 2021.

Joanna Butterworth, who commutes daily from Eastwood to Watham Abbey, said congestion could make her 50-minute journey an hour and a half-long nightmare.

She added: “Every time you get to a junction, the traffic seems to stop, and then crawl along. Then you speed up and the same happens again. This is not even when there’s a crash – it’s just the congestion.

“The money seems a bit of waste if it’s not going to solve the problem long-term. Fairglen is a bottleneck and if they have money for other roads, such as the A13 and the A12, why can’t they do the same for the A127?”

About 67,000 vehicles a day, use Nevendon interchange, just outside Basildon, and this is expected to increase to 93,000 by 2036, while traffic between Rayleigh Weir and Basildon is expected to rise to more than 100,000 vehicles a day.

County Hall says simply maintaining the A127 – originally build in the Twenties – will cost as much as £60million between now and 2019. It did bid for £76million of Government cash for improvements last year, but was given just a third of that.

However, Ray Howard, a Tory county, Castle Point borough and Canvey town councillor thinks it may still be possible to make major changes to the road.

Mr Howard who is deputy to county councillor responsible for highways Rodney Bass, said: “Without doubt, the A127 should be three lanes.

“The situation is being monitored by the county council, but we are a large Local Enterprise Partnership that also includes Kent and East Sussex, when making funding bids.”

Maldon and Burnham Standard: Julian Ware-Lane

Parliamentary hopeful criticises MPs

A LABOUR Parliamentary hopeful has criticised Tory rivals for not raising south Essex’s road problems in the Commons when they were MPs.

Julian Ware-Lane, Labour’s Parliamentary candidate for Southend West, has vowed to prioritise the area’s road problems if he were elected on May 7.

However, Sir David Amess, the Tory who has represented the constituency since 1997, insists roads are a priority for him, too, and claims to have had some successes, while an MP.

The Government announced a £50million package of improvements for the A127 between Southend and the M25, but Mr Ware-Lane said this would be nowhere near enough.

He said: “I believe there is a strong argument for a new motorway traversing the south of Essex, one linking the M25 with the east of the borough.

“I accept this is easier to say than to do, and there will be many arguments over a route and whether it should be an entirely new road or a major overhaul of existing routes.

“This debate has been carrying on since at least the Seventies, but it really does appear while the jams have multiplied, there has been little will among local MPs to really get their teeth into this issue.”

On Monday, the Echo reported crashes and blockages had disrupted the A127 no fewer than 17 times in the preceding 30 days.

Whenever the A127 goes into lockdown, other routes, such as the A13 and A130, also become clogged up.

Brian Otridge, Ukip’s candidate for S o u t h e n d West advocates “a more continental”

style of getting rid of debris, using bulldozers.

He also b e l i e v e s adding a third lane and adjusting the timing of traffic lights would also help.

He said: “Even at 5.20am, traffic slows to 50 mph and less, and there is usually a traffic jam.

“Other places act as bottlenecks, too, such as the A127 Bellhouse Lane traffic lights which often operate with short 30-second phases.

“The adjacent pedestrian crossing lights operate out of phase, exacerbating the problem.”

Lib Dems candidate Paul Collins added: “I have previously called on the Government to include making the A127 three lanes from the M25 to the Southend boundary in its Thames Gateway plans.

“We have a framework in place, let's make sure it benefits all of south Essex.

“A motorway would take much longer to plan and fund so I would press for increasing capacity by 50 per cent of the A127 up to Southend as soon as possible.”

Green Party candidate Jon Fuller had a more radical suggestion – massively boosting public transport can cycling.

He said: “We have got to stop wasting money widening and building new roads.

“We need to develop a bus network to match that of the London suburbs and start investing serious money in cycle path networks and low speed zones within all residential zones.”
 

Maldon and Burnham Standard: David Amess suggested BBC presenters might have had 'too much botox'

Sir David defends his record

Sir David Amess has defended his record on pushing for better local roads.

Sir David, a south Essex MP since 1983, where he was elected in Basildon, before moving to Southend West in 1997, said the A127 had a talking point throughout his three decades as an MP.

He said he had highlighted safety issues in the Commons, and warned any road improvement work would naturally bring disruption.

He said: “Anyone who thinks that this is a simple matter is very naive.

“While any road improvements are undertaken, residents will only be too well aware that there can be massive disruption to their regular journey.
“Hansard shows my record on this issue and my paramount
aim is road safety. No one has come up with an easy answer to traffic congestion.”

Mega money pumped into Fairglen

SOME £17million is to be spent upgrading the Fairglen Interchange.

An average of 73,000 vehicles a day use the junction, making it the busiest on the A127 and what County Hall calls a “key intervention point”.

The work will include a new slip road between the A127 and the A130, but will not start until 2019 at the earliest.

It will be the last of a phased package of improvements which will have cost a total of £25million.

The plans also include adding a fourth lane at the Kent Elms and Bell junctions in Southend at a cost of £5million.

The Nevendon Interchange, outside Basildon – used by around 67,000 drivers a day – will also get an extra lane to ease bottlenecks – a move prompted by the building of new homes nearby.

Paul Bird, the most senior highways officer at County Hall, admits future housing and other development is likely to put pressure on on the road network, making the need for junction improvements all the more pressing.

Delays again on the road

TRAFFIC delays hit the A127 again yesterday morning after a young cyclist was in collision with a car.

The teenager, thought to have been riding a bike along Southend Road, Wickford, was injured at the Nevendon sliproad shortly after 8am.

Eyewitnesses reported seeing him laying in the road, with a BMX bike by his side.

The junction was blocked, as emergency services worked to clear the scene, causing traffic to queue up on the A127 as far as the Fortune of War roundabout, in Laindon.

The teenager was taken to Basildon Hospital for treatment, but his injuries were described as minor.

A spokesman for the East of England Ambulance Service said: “We were called at 8.04am and sent an ambulance, rapid response vehicle and ambulance car.

“We treated a young man with a suspected leg injury. He was taken to Basildon Hospital.”