ACCESS to Elms Farms development in Heybridge has been bedevilled by problems.

I asked that bus laybys be constructed when I saw the original plans for the relief road. I was told that bus laybys are never constructed on relief roads. Buses would go through the housing estate.

The residents of the first phase asked for buses and were told none could be provided - because there were no bus laybys!

I drew attention to the fact that there was no northern access between the phases and that the southern route would not be completed until the sixth phase was built - only now is it being built. There are other problems I could detail.

Heybridge Approach Road was built with no footpaths. After an inspection by district councillors, they were constructed as far as Doubleday Drive. Further pressure resulted in a path being continued to a point just beyond the Elms Farm roundabout.

I never knew how the stopping point was decided that left no footpath between it and Crescent Road passing Langford Meads.

Parish councillor Lynda Harris successfully put the case for a footpath to a bus stop on the Langford Road for Chelmsford-bound buses that could be reached via a refuge safely in the centre of Heybridge Approach.

The development of the Langford Meads site was granted, on appeal, in December 2005. It specified that a footpath must be constructed on the frontage adjoining the main road before the houses were occupied.

I wrote to Maldon District Council when the first residents arrived to ask why houses were being occupied when the footpath had not been constructed.

Construction of the paths along the frontage of the site began recently.

Wooden barriers shielded the workmen and traffic lights controlled single lines of traffic and a very good path has been constructed.

Imagine my astonishment and anger when the path stopped at the end of the Langford Meads frontage and then curved out into the road leaving a shot gap (20 metres) between it and the path from Elms Farm round about on a very dangerous curve.

The number of people who use this route can be assessed by the bare grass. Mothers with buggies, elderly people and children are especially vulnerable - I am afraid to cross this road to visit the four houses on the opposite side of the road.

Some people wish to get to the bus stop on Holloway Road because the new fare stage makes the journey cheaper. I assume the greensward in this footpath gap belongs to County Highways.

We are now told that Essex County Highways has no money in this year's budget to link up the two paths. Essex County Highways was involved in the original planning application in 2005 when their advice would have been sought.

The need to finance this short piece of footpath could have been included in the 2006 or 2007 annual budgets. Indeed, surely the cheapest option would have been to give the contract to the firm doing the work for the developers originally.

Now it will cost a lot more money to bring in workmen, materials and traffic lights to construct this short piece of footpath.

Surely Essex County Highways has a contingency fund to overcome such errors when they become apparent?

Miss BA Claydon
Crescent Road
Heybridge