Billericay's Local Road Network
The Problem
It would be easy to write many thousands of words on the problems faced by the constricted road network of our historic town.
In 2012 an Essex County Council study considered the impact of several housing growth on 9 key Billericay junctions. They found that even if no houses were build, the background growth in traffic would see these junctions pushed over capacity by 2031 (or before). Billericay was very much the weak link in the boroughs road network.
They found that the problem was worse if 800 homes were built and worse again if 1500 were built – none of these scenarios considered the impact of the huge levels of growth expected outside Basildon Borough.
Now of course we face the prospect of 2,800 homes, nearly all on Green Belt.
Proposed Response
The worst effected junctions were Sun Corner and the London Road\Tye Common Road junction so efforts to find solutions to junction capacity issues have focussed on these.
The idea of the ‘Relief Road’ is that it will enable traffic on the Basildon-Brentwood through traffic to by-pass these junctions and so relieve them.
But how much of Billericay’s traffic is through traffic from Basildon to Brentwood, instead of:
As far as we can tell there has been no analysis of what difference can be reasonably achieved by this road and what the unintended consequences might be.
Leaving aside the appalling environmental damage, there are a number of problems with the Relief Road:
It would be easy to write many thousands of words on the problems faced by the constricted road network of our historic town.
In 2012 an Essex County Council study considered the impact of several housing growth on 9 key Billericay junctions. They found that even if no houses were build, the background growth in traffic would see these junctions pushed over capacity by 2031 (or before). Billericay was very much the weak link in the boroughs road network.
They found that the problem was worse if 800 homes were built and worse again if 1500 were built – none of these scenarios considered the impact of the huge levels of growth expected outside Basildon Borough.
Now of course we face the prospect of 2,800 homes, nearly all on Green Belt.
Proposed Response
The worst effected junctions were Sun Corner and the London Road\Tye Common Road junction so efforts to find solutions to junction capacity issues have focussed on these.
The idea of the ‘Relief Road’ is that it will enable traffic on the Basildon-Brentwood through traffic to by-pass these junctions and so relieve them.
But how much of Billericay’s traffic is through traffic from Basildon to Brentwood, instead of:
- N-S, E-W and other cross-town through-traffic (people who don’t live or work in Billericay)
- Traffic generated by Billericay residents travelling to\from area outside Billericay
- People coming into Billericay to work
- People coming into Billericay to drop someone off then heading back the way they came (School drops etc)
- Point to point traffic within Billericay
As far as we can tell there has been no analysis of what difference can be reasonably achieved by this road and what the unintended consequences might be.
Leaving aside the appalling environmental damage, there are a number of problems with the Relief Road:
- The developer contributions that will go towards the road would otherwise be spent on socially useful projects.
- At least 1700 (probably more like 2100) houses are now planned for the south-west alone, the number has increased so that there are enough developer contributions to pay for the road. These houses will generate a great deal of traffic and pollution themselves.
- Tye Common Lane is already very busy at peak times. This road will be severed by a new junction (see proposed junction below) with the link road worsening tailbacks.
- The road will redistribute existing and new traffic around Billericay in unpredictable ways, it seems likely that a great deal of traffic will be diverted to south-west and west Billericay with the Mountnessing Road – Perry Street route particularly badly affected.
- The road will by a partial by-pass but will not be built to by-pass standards. It will instead be a rat-run through a series of new housing estates. The availability of a new through-route across town may mean more traffic uses the A129 through Billericay as a through-route.
- Intolerable impact on Frithwood Lane includes factor that new and existing residents of the will have access to town severed by a very busy road.
- All sorts of rat-running options created in order for traffic to access new road
We are preparing a much fuller response for the Government Planning Inspector, but our conclusion is that calling it a ‘Relief Road’ does not make it one, the term is a misnomer.
Do you trust the Council’s judgement? - The Norsey Road One-way shambles
Do you trust the judgement of Essex CC, Basildon Council and the other bodies? Can they be trusted to get this right?
Do you remember the disastrous 2005 scheme which closed Norsey Road and caused huge tailbacks and pollution in Billericay?
www.echo-news.co.uk/news/5543558.Billericay__One_way_traffic_trial_on_hold_for_winter/?fbclid=IwAR3A_LyJHuigYfYkvIZ0b9amWjrtGmMRTNCQoh9-W7nRgq-ErkhjrZpxv1A
It’s back! The proposed Local Plan will see Norsey Road made one way (north only) from the junction with the High Street to St Andrew’s Way.
The public bodies behind the Plan cannot be trusted with our town’s future.
