brentwood.gov.uk

Lack of Road Infrastructure
One of the major issues posed by the Dunton Hills Garden Village and other proposed developments along the A127 corridor is its impact on the local road infrastructure. With 3000 new homes we could see and additional 6,000 cars being placed on the road network in the area. It is likely that large numbers of residents of the new developments would need to travel outside to access work, schools, and shops because there will be only very limited provision for such amenities within the development itself.
The roads that would bear the brunt of the extra traffic would be the A127, A128 and the lower Dunton Road leading South via the B1007 to the A13.
The A127 is already a major arterial highway running from Southend into London. It has been seriously neglected in recent years as new housing development has increased its load far beyond its capacity (see A127 - Corridor for Growth, An economic Plan by R.L. Bass and A Cox March 2014). Although it is a dual carriageway it has many small roads that join it at minor junctions as well as retail shops such as garden centres that open directly onto the road without slip lanes in many cases. The traffic on the road is now far too heavy and fast for such junctions.
The estimated cost to rectify some of its faults to cope with existing traffic is estimated at 70 million pounds. The road is currently blocked down to slow moving traffic along parts of its length during morning commuter traffic lasting for several hours along some stretches such as between the Dunton roundabout and the M25 junction. Since there is no verge or hard shoulder any minor accident or breakdown brings the entire road to a standstill at almost any hour. Junction upgrades will not be sufficient to change this. If Dunton Garden Suburb is to be viable the road will need a major upgrade to three lanes with a hard shoulder. This would entail expense measured in hundreds of millions of pounds. This money could not be raised through community infrastructure levys since any such money will be needed for onsite infrastructure such as schools and health centres and would never be sufficient for large scale road improvements. Unless another source of funding on a large scale is found the A127 is likely to remain as it is turning the area into a road traffic nightmare. Since we are entering an era of increased austerity it is hard to imagine where such money could come from. With the A127 blocked other roads will increasingly become rat-runs for cars trying to find alternative routes. This will be the case for the A128 and roads through West Horndon.
Other roads will also suffer from the impact of the development. Since half the residents will belong to the Brentwood Borough they will often wish to travel to Brentwood along the A128. That is already a road that suffers traffic problems of its own. If the suburb is given direct access to the A128 so that traffic does not need to use the A127 to get there then the suburb itself will become a rat-run for through traffic trying to avoid the A127.
Another alternative route will be the A13 but it is also at a high capacity and the Lower Dunton Road/B1007 route is also a minor road which would therefore need upgrading
In conclusion the traffic implications of the proposed development will be catastrophic for the area unless outside funding in the order of a billion pounds is found to upgrade road networks before the suburb is built. In the present economic climate their is no possibility of funding on anything like that scale so the project must be taken no further.
In contrast, the A12 corridor is benefiting from huge investment in Crossrail and widening of the A12 over the next few years. Relatively little new housing development has been proposed for the A12 corridor in the Borough of Brentwood. It would make much more sense to plan for new development along the A12 corridor where infrastructure is already being improved than the A127 corridor where there is little hope of much funding for road or rail improvements over the term of the plan.