The following is a letter from The United Dengie Councils on plans to turn a section of Burnham Road into an "urban street" – which means it would have more pedestrian crossings, new roundabouts and a reduced speed limit.

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The Dengie parishes have concerns about the proposed changes to Burnham Road.

Under the existing plans, South Woodham Ferrers (SWF) will lose its existing bypass - the Burnham Road B1012 - which will be "demoted" to an "urban street" with a 40mph speed limit and numerous impediments to traffic flow - six new signalised pedestrian crossings and two new roundabouts.

There are no plans to replace the existing bypass so, given that the town will extend over a considerable area north of the Burnham Road, traffic will have to find its way through the town via one of two routes (B1012 or Ferrers Road) or, if both are blocked, via a narrow winding country lane (Edwins Hall Road).

Given that the Burnham Road is the main route for traffic entering and leaving the Dengie and the road is already over capacity, this will result in local highways being gridlocked for substantial periods of time on a regular basis.

The parish and town councils in the area that will be most adversely affected by the plans for highways are joining forces as The United Dengie Councils.

These councils have been battling individually to ensure that traffic flow in and out of the Dengie is not seriously impaired by the changes that are planned for Burnham Road in the aftermath of the new housing development north of South Woodham Ferrers and other developments elsewhere in the Dengie.

The problem is that the decision-makers have turned a deaf ear to their approaches - which is why we are now working at getting a representative number of councils to adopt a unified approach given that there is strength in numbers. Acting as one representative body, we will carry much more clout than individual councils doing their own thing.

A specific complaint is that the cumulative effect of traffic from both SWF and the Dengie has been ignored despite repeated representations.

This is the Achilles' heel - development can be prevented or refused on highways grounds if there would be "an unacceptable impact on highway safety, or the residual cumulative impacts on the road network would be severe".

So, it's no wonder that the decision-makers are turning a deaf ear when the parish and town councils in the affected areas are pointing out again and again that there is massive pressure on the roads at present - and that this is bound to get worse when all the new developments are completed.

It is hoped that by uniting as The United Dengie Councils we will create pressure to obtain a workable solution that is fair to all. So far, seven councils have signed up with more awaiting decisions to be made at their formal meetings.

The latest developments

1) Chelmsford City Council (CCC) has been accused of trying to manipulate the referendum on the SWF Neighbourhood Plan to make it appear that a vote for the Neighbourhood Plan would be a vote for the existing plans for highways.

Fortunately, CCC was outmanoeuvred in this instance. Although the neighbourhood plan contained references to highways that affect the Dengie (for example Burnham Road is mentioned with a recommendation that the speed limit should be reduced to 40mph), all those living in the Dengie were, of course, excluded from voting so this appeared to be another attempt to marginalise us.

2) Countryside has released a press release which says it has submitted an outline planning application for development north of Burnham Road.

What wasn't made abundantly clear is that the application is a hybrid one, which means the section dealing with changes to Burnham Road is a full application and, if agreed by Chelmsford City Council, the plans in their present form will be implemented which will be disastrous for the Dengie.

At that time, those adversely affected only had until 26 November to submit comments to Chelmsford City Council. Given that there were over 100 documents in the application, and that they are badly assembled, riddled with errors, unnecessarily long and very hard to make sense of, it was felt that this time limit was unreasonable. Complaints were lodged and the deadline has now been extended until 7 January.

We are encouraging those drivers who will be affected by what is planned to write to their MP John Whittingdale by emailing [email protected].

You can click here to find further contact details for Mr Whittingdale.

Residents are advised to copy their email or letter to their parish or town councils so the local representatives remain fully aware of the views of the public.