Dear Sir,

Road planning here was, is and will be an absolute car crash: well it would be if the cars can actually move out of the gridlock such abysmal planning will create.

Following the ‘success’ of the car park known as Rammell’s Folly, the dualling of the A414 from J7 to the now Hamburger Roundabout cost £51 million and that of making the Clocktower roundabout an exciting game of chance (another £50 million plus) it was no surprise to learn from Robert Halfon’s announcement in his newsletter, that the County Council now proposes to spend another vast amount of public money by putting 4 lanes in to the stretch of the A414 between the two roundabouts: why? it cannot increase traffic flow because at both ends of the stretch of road there are bottlenecks.

Add the cost of J7a and the route along Gilden Way then we have a waste of public money on a vast scale.

To what purpose?

Have planners and county councillors learnt nothing?

Clearly Chelmsford has a cunning plan just like Baldricks’. Alternative explanations seem to be that County actually does not really want Harlow’s development to succeed or perhaps by generating work that is funded in smaller amounts there may be those with undeclared interests in road building companies that might benefit? Such poor planning can’t simply be put down to a lack of competence and vision.

It can do nothing to speed the traffic through because the traffic flowing into town along Second Avenue has nowhere of additional traffic capacity to go. It will be “a better road” as Robert says but not in any sense that will ease traffic congestion: it might be smoother, the current surface middle lane is extremely rough since some vandals funded by County Hall put a thin layer of stone chips over the top of hatched road markings.

This development will cause more than chaos and gridlock because through an equally myopic decision by County to effectively block exit / entrance to the town by simultaneously reducing traffic flow along Gilden Way by not insisting that there is a large buffer zone and lorry delivery area between the road and the development and by widening Edinburgh Way at the same time. Traffic from Church Langley will have no where to go, effectively blocked south north and west. Great planning guys.

The logic County seems to be employing leads us to think that once this measure is seen to fail that the County Council will come up with another brilliantly ingenious plan : to dual Second Avenue and continue into the future along the A1025 to Third Avenue and the Pinnacles: a route that will cut the town in half and do nothing to ease congestion: something that was rejected by town residents years ago,

The plan doesn’t make sense even if the overall idea made any sense: if the chosen development is the A414 then why weren’t the stretches between the Gates Roundabout and Church Langley roundabout made into four lanes when all of the work done recently was being done? (which incidentally, took an inordinate length of time).

It is a well know fact that building more roads generates more traffic, a 70 %+ increase along Gilden Way: building more roads into an area where there is nowhere for the traffic to go, into a bottleneck is even worse.

Add new housing in the area at New Hall and off Gilden Way and Harlow North and you have the perfect storm: plus a major increase in pollution / decrease in air quality from the fumes from gridlocked cars.

Doing nothing within the town boundaries would be better: link up all of the cycle ways would make sense, traffic volume would be self limiting: how to cope?

Robert Halfon supported a brilliant idea that would prevent Harlow North and that side of town grinding to a halt : a Northern by pass, from J7a) instead of ploughing traffic into Gilden Way.

Add to that a southern by pass from J7 to Eastwick A414 and a far better and cost effective scheme in the long run: put access points to the town via “park and ride” centres around what together would be a ring by pass motorway and congestion sorted. Not to mention that such combination would help regionally by providing a much needed additional east west route.

Also, where was the public consultation over the widening of the road and the four lane idea? Must have been buried or whispered : whatever, the process failed and inadequate, just like the whole road transport plan since just after Harlow was built when they managed to build the whole M11 on the wrong side of town!

Kind regards
Edward Vine