New M11 junction: Get on your bike to avoid traffic chaos
News / Fri 14th Jun 2019 at 07:54am
Report by Nicholas Taylor of the Harlow Alliance Party
A Public Enquiry was held by a Planning Inspector at the Latton Bush Centre on Tuesday 11 June. HAP and one Conservative Councillor attended the enquiry in the public gallery along with just 15 people, testament to the failure of Essex County Council’s publicity in attracting residents to this important event. The Planning Inspector will we feel sure have noted this poor turnout.
The Harlow Alliance Party learnt that the new roads that feed into the new Junction 7a of the M11 from Harlow will not be able to cope with traffic from all the proposed new developments in and around Harlow and Gilston Garden Town unless 60% of residents, who now live or will occupy the new dwellings. use sustainable transport. If this percentage of change in transportation is not reached it is likely our roads will become gridlocked. So residents will be expected to abandon their cars and cycle, walk or use Rapid Transport Buses to avoid gridlock on our roads. The sustainable transport policy is an aspiration of Essex County Council whose officers put forward the case for such a scheme to the Planning Inspector
The new junction which it was suggested will be completed by 2022 was designed to ease congestion in Harlow as well as permit further planning consent for developments in the Enterprise Zone thus hopefully creating more jobs.
It has secured funded for the construction of the junction from contributions by Highways England (£41.7M), South East Local Enterprise Partnership (£10.5M), with the remainder coming from Essex County Council and 106 agreements from planning applications to the Local Authorities.
The new and improved roads to be constructed are to accommodate traffic from the A414 in both directions and from proposed new developments, using a new road crossing the River Stort and railway into Riverway and then on to Edinburgh Way and Gilden Way which then feeds into the new M11 junction.
HAP is very disappointed that funding has not been found for a Northern By-Pass which many agree would be a much better option, serving motorists or lorries who are not looking to enter Harlow and Gilston Garden Town but to by-pass it to reach locations outside of the town.
The Planning Inspector will now put his findings in respect the Plan’s legality and viability to The Minister of Transport for final decision.
durcant
2019-06-14 09:28:46
Everyone who’s uses the current exit to the M11 knows we’re desperate for a new access onto the M11. Anyone who lives in Potter Street and Church Langley equally already suffer on a weekly basis delays because of the single access onto the M11. Whilst everyone would agree a northern by pass should be the solution we can’t wait any longer. We need the new exit and we need it now. We have to keep the town moving. We have to invest in today’s community. We have to invest in new employment opportunities. We are bored with talking and debating. Just get the access built and open. Rant over. Thank you.
tenpin
2019-06-14 10:50:08
I think you have missed the point Durcant, which is, that unless their is a massive increase in the use of buses, cycle ways and walking when making journeys then the new junction will do nothing to ease congestion in the town. The fact is, with all the new homes and jobs expected in the town in the next 10 years the extra journey's taken by residents and commuters will simply mean that that motorists will find things no better, indeed predicted to be worse, than they are now. It was quite clearly stated by the representative of ECC at the Epping Forest Local Plan Examination that plans to mitigate the effects of building thousands of new homes were in their opinion not adequate. If the town becomes even more gridlocked then this must surely deter businesses from coming to the town. I think that all of us who live and or work in Harlow could agree that what we have could rightly be called a half baked scheme, the other half should have been a direct link from the new junction to the A414 at Gilston.
MickyB77
2019-06-14 11:09:54
The people who have proposed this are absolutely clueless. Ask anybody who lives on Hatfield Heath, Sheering , and Lower Sheering, Matching and Churchgate Street, Hobbs X and they will tell you, in no uncertain terms that this is a catastrophe waiting to happen. Wedged between the A414 and the new 7a. Lunacy. It's chaotic in these areas now, just wait until all the development is over and the new residencies are full, two or more cars per house equals another 5 to 10 thousand vehicles, not forgetting the Church Langley New Town. Labour says, " they'll have to use the buses".
durcant
2019-06-14 15:05:17
Tenpin whilst I don’t disagree with you and haven’t miss read your original comment we have a crisis now. Nearly everyday local people struggle to leave and return to our town as we have only one exit onto the M11. The impact is effecting business and personal use,it’s also having a negative impact on the air quality in the local area. This new exit is vital for today’s community not tomorrow’s community. Growth regeneration and change has to positively benefit today’s community. I accept people are sick and tired of politicians and others wanting to debate the option of a northern by pass but regardless we need another access point to the M11. We can collectively campaign in the long term for the northern by pass but we need to act and react to the issues facing us today. They only option is a second access point onto the M11 and we need it ASAP. So I don’t disagree with you but we need to commit to the proposal and just build it. Another rant over. Grateful for your reasonable response.
MickyB77
2019-06-14 15:57:30
Dur, Are you on the same planet as the rest of us. The whole scheme needs re-planning, and and, a major re-assessment of the impact between 7a, and the rest of the world. Have you any idea of the grid-lock surrounding Gilden Way and the new development at this moment ? Obviously not.
Lambert6
2019-06-14 16:19:47
Lack of notification could be the cause of low turnout. We do not get a local paper and not everyone knows about In Your Area app. To add to this there are no planning notifications for HARLOW on this site, only Herts. (No wedding or bereavement notices either.). I assumed Essex County Council and Harlow Council didn’t want HARLOW folk to be aware of things being planned so they couldn’t object and had stopped the publicity!
tenpin
2019-06-14 17:43:01
I am afraid Durcant your latest post just highlights the lack of foresight and vision demonstrated so often in the Council chamber. Tomorrows community is just two or three years away, the development off Gilden Way will be completed, over 1100 homes will mean a huge increase in traffic using this area despite the aspirations of the transport planners. Public Health England will within the next 5 years employ some 3000+ staff at The Pinnacles and of course the Science Park may well be completed.... and I haven't even started to mention the hundreds of homes which could be completed if the EFDC Local Plan gets the go ahead. The Labour Group at Harlow Council should only ever have signed the Memo of Agreement with neighbouring councils in 2017 on the condition that a northern by-pass was constructed as part of the Plan. In 10 years time I expect your candidate for the towns MP to be jumping up and down complaining about the traffic just as she did recently about Church Langley, when in fact it was a Labour Council which agreed to the road layouts in the 1980's/1990's. As for consulting/advising residents Lambert6, what did or did not happen about advising residents, is par for the course as far as Harlow Council is concerned. Whilst it was up to ECC to advertise the Public Enquiry, you would have thought that in the interest of it's residents that Harlow Council would have made an effort to advise them of what was going on.
kthe5
2019-06-14 18:02:01
As someone who uses J7 on most weekdays, I can say categorically that J7a is a must and needs to be built as soon as possible. It's a good day if the queue is not up to the Shell/BP garage. This solution not the ideal solution. It will create problems of it's own. As presented it probably the least worse solution. It is however probably the only solution that is viable time wise and for the best value to the tax payer. The "northern bypass" solution is also not ideal - it will mean converting green belt/green field/nature reserve area into tarmac & diesel fumes. This will take decades to resolve - see Heathrow 3rd runway for an example. And thats just a few hundred yards of tarmac. It would be nice, but for good reason, it is now not easy to tarmac over trees, rivers, and fields requiring commities, investigations, judicial inquiries etc. Every time a new road, new junction etc is built, there are still traffic problems. This is well known, it is expected. J7a as presented is needed, it is not ideal, it will affect some people negatively, others posivitly. Any other solution will be the same. The main issue I have with with the plans is what is labled the "Pincey Brook Roundabout". Most roundabouts have 3 or more roads converging, it acts as a multi-way junction. This roundabout on the plans have one road going in, one road going out. So, what is the point of this roundabout? It reqires a water course diversion, for no reason that I can see from the plans. I agree with durcant, the northern bypass can and should be a long term goal. But for the medium term the current plans are better than doing nothing. Hi Mickey "Have you any idea of the grid-lock surrounding Gilden Way and the new development at this moment ?Obviously not." I suspect yes, because the impact on Gilden Way is part of the planning documents & process for 7a. As is the Hedgehog impact assesment, and the Bat box location plan. These days planning is much more comprehensive than it used to be. (From memory, Gilden Way is expected to have approx 70% increase in traffic, part of the plan takes this into account).
MickyB77
2019-06-15 06:02:23
So KT, you believe that the planners and our ever alert council have told the complete truth about this project, yeah, me too ? Are you aware that the whole of the land around Churchgate Street, Hubbard Hall and virtually every other direction is targeted for development ?
MickyB77
2019-06-15 06:03:35
Spot on tenpin.
MickyB77
2019-06-15 07:28:12
Durcan. Check out to-days revelation about the application to build the ' new garden town' in and around the existing town, and the mis-guided aspirations of this crazy council.
durcant
2019-06-15 07:42:21
Good morning tenpin. Thank you for your reply and to be honest there isn’t much difference in our combined views. Agree the idea solution is a northern by pass. Agree we have some significant challenges around road networks as the town moves forward. Not only with the new housing developments but the likely move of PAH and the every increasing local job opportunities will require alternative workable solutions. We’re we differ is the need now for change. Not in 3 years or 5 or 10 years we need change now. This debate has been on going well it feels like forever. We have an opportunity to unlock the gridlock that occurs ever day at the single junction of the M11. This town needs the second junction now. The pioneers who design and constructed this town faced similar questions and challenges in the past and we will face them as a forceful community. Please let’s not forget the current hard working community of Harlow and get the junction built for them. So more than happy to disagree but in the sprit of friendship and co operation. Enjoy the sunshine.
kthe5
2019-06-15 23:03:19
Hi Mickey "you believe that the planners...have told the complete truth" For conspiracy theories go to David Icke. "Are you aware..." Distraction. tenpin - I forgot to say thanks for attending this meeting.
MickyB77
2019-06-16 05:55:43
Katy, I think that you should team up with Durcan, he's naive or devious too.
durcant
2019-06-16 07:00:43
Kthe5 morning. My New Years resolution ok it’s June is not to reply to Peter Lamb aka MickyB77.its impossible to have a sensible and rationale debate about serious issues that effect our community with Peter. Others have stopped posting on this site which is a shame. Whilst we may disagree we mainly do this with respect but some feel it better to trade insults. No idea who you are but thank you for contributing to the discussion. Have a great day.
MickyB77
2019-06-16 14:08:07
All sorts of whispers from the socialists, who are desperate to associate me, with Peter Lamb. Constanza, aka jerryfor queen, and now durcant adding his usual sarcastic comment.You've got the wrong man, my friends. In case you people have forgotten, this is an open site for opinions on articles and comments, not only for the lefties, but for any-one who cares to offer their valid opinion on local events, not just to agree with what the "Labour" group care to dish out.
MickyB77
2019-06-16 15:03:01
KT, are you aware that when the Gilden estate is fully occupied it will have a higher population density than the Churchgate area, and surrounding properties. I am very concerned about what's in store for the CM17 area.
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