Link road will 'ruin lives' say Elmstead residents
At its closest the dual carriageway will pass just 63 metres away
Homeowners say Essex County Council’s refusal to buy their property by a planned dual carriageway just yards away to unlock a new 9,000-home development has “ruined” their lives.
At its closest point, a new road linking the A133 and A120 – potentially carrying up to 20,000 vehicles a day – is estimated to be just 63metres away from Mount Pleasant Cottages, in Elmstead.
The proposed development will see up to 9,000 homes built in fields close by on the border of Colchester and Tendring as a garden town over the next 30 years, along with employment spaces to accommodate new businesses and jobs.
Documents submitted as part of the planning application have admitted the properties, on Tye Road, “are predicted to experience significant adverse noise effects”. They currently look out onto hundreds of acres of open arable fields.
The owners have been told tree planting and quiet concrete will mitigate the impact.
But Adele High, who lives with husband Simon and their two teenage sons at 2 Mount Pleasant Cottages, told the LDRS the impact the project is having financially and mentally has “ruined” their lives.
The couple have submitted an informal blight request to force the county council to purchase the property or least compensate them.
This discretionary blight notice has been refused. They are still able to request one formally.
However the authority said “it is very likely” that it would maintain an objection because “no part of the property is comprised in blighted land”.
Adele, 49, said: “We are potentially going to be having 20,000 vehicles running past our house each day.
“And they think their mitigation measures are trees and a quiet road surface.
“And then before that we will have the construction noise. It will take two years for the road to be built.
“It has ruined our lives”.
The new link road, along with a Rapid Transport System to the east of Colchester, is being funded with £99million of Government money secured by the county council to deliver infrastructure to help support the new garden town.
The planned route will leave the A133 via a roundabout east of the University of Essex, cutting across 2.4km of open arable farmland before joining the A120 via a junction east of Bromley Road.
Adele said: “We were told to put down what our wishes were. And we said we want out. We love it here but they are going to ruin it.
“We want compensation for this.”
The impact the road is likely to have is all the more acute given the speed house prices are rocketing in the area – Tendring saw the biggest increase in Essex in the past year – with the average price of a home up 13.6 per cent in 12 months.
Adele and Simon say it means the home should be worth significantly more than the £425,000 it was estimated at in 2017.
Zoopla has estimated its value at as much as £527,000.
Adele said: “We want out.”
Simon, 49, said: “Essex County Council should take the responsibility for the people they are upsetting and deal with it accordingly. Don’t just say put up with it.”
He said that they are now looking at submitting a formal blight notice to ECC if they are unable to get what they want for it at sale – and then following that possibly to take their case to the Lands Tribunal which can rule over compensation for blighted land if ECC indeed refuse it.
In addition. under the Land Compensation Act 1973 if a new road is constructed and the owner of a nearby property suffers loss as a result of noise, vibration, smell, fumes, smoke, artificial lighting or the discharge on to the land of any solid or liquid substance, they can claim compensation but not until the road has been opened for a year and eligibility will depend on an assessment of impact at the time when a claim is made.
Simon added: “In our last correspondence we said that if we put the house up for sale and we can’t sell it or we can’t get what we want for it, we’ll be coming back to you.”
Linda Blanchette, 59, who has lived at 1 Mount Pleasant Cottages with husband Ian for 31 years, said: “We don’t want to move. We find it so unfair they are not willing to offer us anything. We are just being forced to put up with it.
She added: “We had hoped to retire here.
“We can’t afford to take on a solicitor to take on our case.
“We should be able to move to an equivalent property in equivalent surroundings if we decide to move on in the future.”
‘No part of the property is directly affected by the proposed preferred route’
A report signed and agreed by Councillor Lesley Wagland, Cabinet Member for Economic Renewal, Infrastructure and Planning said: “No part of the property is directly affected by the proposed preferred route, nor is any of the property required for delivery of the presently proposed preferred route scheme.
“The scheme design is subject to planning permission and therefore subject to change. However ECC has included details in its planning application (based on the assessment in the supporting Environmental Statement) which will seek to mitigate the impact of the road corridor through screening of the route and low noise road surfacing to minimise visual and noise intrusion on the surrounding area.
“The impact on the property will therefore be limited.
“No part of the property is closer than 63m to the proposed boundary of the new highway, with the carriageway being further away.
“It should also be noted that the property will maintain its access and the new road will improve its connectivity.
“It is clear from the request that part of their concerns is about the encroachment of housing proposed within the Tendring and Colchester Borders Garden Community which is part of the Local Development Framework published by Colchester Borough Council and Tendring District Council.
“The impact of housing is a separate question to the impact of the road. The housing is likely to be provided even if the road is not built.”
Campaigners have separately called for a rethink of the link road, as well as the widening of the A12, given the importance of reducing car usage to tackle climate change.
Development campaigner Rosie Pearson said on social media: “Yet we see unnecessary schemes such as the six extra lanes for the A12 (meaning ten in total!) and the link road between the A120 and A133.
“In both cases I, and other campaigners, have proposed better alternatives. The county and local councils are not listening.”