Alan
Hurst (Braintree, Lab)
Before I start my speech, I should like to pay tribute to the hon.
Member for Rochford and Southend, East (Sir Teddy Taylor), who is
retiring. As he and other hon. Members will know, I have had some
association with his constituency over a number of years, and I
can confirm the enormously high regard in which he is held by people
of all political parties.
I turn now to a matter that affects my own parliamentary division
of Braintree, and it concerns a road. For a Member who represents
a rural or semi-rural area close to a town, roads can be a plus
but they can also be a minus. Many Members will have travelled along
the M11 out of London towards Stansted or beyond, and many will
have travelled along the A12 from London to the east coast. A large
part of the area between those two roads is my parliamentary constituency.
Joining those roads is another road: the A120.
I do not wish to exaggerate, but until recently, most of the A120
was little more than an improved country road. It is now right to
say, however, that after many years, many deliberations and an extensive
public inquiry, the road west of Braintree leading to Stansted is
a modern, fast-moving motor road. Indeed, those who travel on it
are amazed at how quickly Stansted is left behind and Braintree
appears. On reaching Braintree—which, not many years ago,
the old A120 used to go through—there is a bypass. The cars
spin along it, their drivers thinking that they are going to the
end of the land, as they travel in such speed and style. They then
reach a landmark that has historically been known as Galley's corner,
although some people now call it McDonald's corner or the "cholesterol
roundabout", because it is surrounded by fast-food outlets,
multiplex cinemas, designer fashion shops and every other attribute
of modern life. The roundabout, though, was not designed to take
such a throughput of traffic, and however quickly someone might
leave Stansted and approach Braintree, they will soon hit an enormous
tailback.
However, that is not really the point that I want to raise, because
the Highways Agency is seeking to resolve that tailback problem
by constructing the A120 east of Braintree through to the A12, thus
joining the two cardinal routes. Every time we design or construct
a road, there will be winners and losers. I went to see the Transport
Minister, my hon. Friend the Member for Plymouth, Devonport (Mr.
Jamieson) about this matter about 18 months ago, because a rumour
was being circulated by one of the political parties in my division
that the line of route was already known. These stories always spread
like wildfire—there is always a conspiracy involved in anything
to do with government. Those of us who have served in public office
for a number of years performing various functions will know that
the conspiracy theory is invariably not the one that holds water,
and that another theory will always be much more apt.
I went to see the Minister, and he showed me on a map that there
were about 13 possible routes—I did not count them—to
take this road east of Braintree to join the A12. I was informed
that there was no preferred route at that stage—they were
all being worked on and considered—so I went away and told
my constituents that I understood that either three or six options
would be presented to the people of Braintree and the adjacent areas,
to ascertain which route they would prefer. Indeed, I believe that
that was the policy that was pursued on the western section.
My constituents and I were therefore somewhat surprised—to
put it mildly—when it was announced in February that there
was one preferred route. We were being given the Henry Ford option:
"You can have any route you like, as long as it's this one."
It is right to say that one or two other lines were sketched in
on the maps as possible routes, but it is not for us humble members
of the public to design roads. That is not our calling. The designers
of roads are engineers and surveyors, and it is for them to put
before the local people a number of choices about where a road should
go.
The route that has been chosen gives great offence to the historic,
tightly knit communities through which, or close to which, it will
run. It will leave the roundabout that I have mentioned and sweep
across country at elevated level past the villages of Tye Green,
Cressing and Lanham Green. The fact that it will be elevated will
make a difference, because people will be able to see the wretched
thing from their back gardens. Not only that, but they will have
the disadvantage of its being illuminated at night, and there will
be a constant hum of traffic going through. They will experience
a sudden change from living in an historic rural community to living
by the side of a motor road.
After that, the road will skirt Silver End, which I have had occasion
to mention here before. It is the model village that was built by
the Crittall window-making company, and which produced the first
Labour Member of Parliament for the county of Essex in 1923. The
road will skirt close to the village before cutting across country
between the town of Coggeshall and the village of Kelvedon, passing
a little hamlet called Half Way, which might not be at the forefront
of hon. Members' minds. I called a meeting at Half Way, a hamlet
of about 40 residents, and we got a higher turnout than we do at
most elections: I think that about 35 attended. They were very reasonable;
they did not scream and shout. They discussed the reasons why it
was inappropriate for this road to run right past their little hamlet
to the next hamlet and the next village along before crashing down
into the Blackwater valley.
The Blackwater river is not one of the great rivers of history—it
is not the Mississippi or even the Thames. It is a river that runs
across Essex and out into the North sea, with a number of tributaries,
and it provides a real aspect of old England that is so often now
missed and lamented: a river valley with water meadows. We read
in the environmental magazines that one area of the countryside
that has declined more than any other is the water meadow, yet in
the Blackwater valley we have water meadows teeming with extensive
wildlife that is native to old Essex. The new road will sweep down
the valley, and rather than tunnelling under the river, it will
go over the top of it. It will be quite hard to disguise a road
bridge of that kind. Eventually, the road will make its way out
through other fairly unspoilt countryside to the north of Feering
to join the A12.
A resident who lives on the A12—a brave man, but he has jolly
good double glazing on the front of his property—bought his
bungalow many years ago and improved it over the years. He told
me that he had bought a little field at the back of his property,
and that the road would go across the corner of it. He said that
there was also a railway line there. He told me that if the road
was built he would no longer be able to sit in his back garden and
look at the stars coming out in the clear sky, and that he would
have to look instead at a sweeping bridge with traffic roaring across
it, right at the bottom of his garden.
It is open to the Highways Agency to go back to their drawing boards
and to conduct proper studies of alternative routes for this road.
I do not think that they have carried out environmental surveys,
or that they have fully assessed the social impact of a road of
this kind sweeping through this part of Essex. I am pleading on
behalf of my constituents. I want them to make representations to
the Highways Agency—as I am doing indirectly now, through
the Minister—in their own handwriting, rather than ticking
boxes on a standard questionnaire. Questionnaires are designed to
elicit the answer that the designer of the questionnaire wants.
I want to see as many letters as possible going to the Highways
Agency describing exactly what the consequences of this road will
be in blighting the lives and properties of so many people, and
I want the Highways Agency to come back and say that it is going
to offer us costed, planned, easy-to-understand options from which
we can choose.
House
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