Colchester's new £100m link road approved by Essex County Council

The new road would link the A133 near the University of Essex with the A120 to the east of Colchester

Plans to build a £100m road to enable to development of a 9,000-home garden town have been approved.

The A133/A120 link road and a rapid transport system to the east of Colchester will be built with £99m of government money.

Essex county councillors voted the plans through by a majority of seven.

But concerns were raised about the "detrimental effect" on wildlife, ancient woodland, cultural heritage, air quality and pollution.

Andrea Luxford-Vaughan from Elmstead Parish Council, which objected the link road, raised the issues and said: "There is no evidence that it is justified in a regional road capacity.

"It ignores all current reviews on road building."

Ms Luxford-Vaughan also said there were "no confirmed costs or timescales", the Local Democracy Reporting Service said.

The road would enable the development of a new garden town between Colchester and Elmstead Market, councillors said

The planned route will leave the A133 via a roundabout east of the University of Essex, cutting north-east across 2.4km of open arable farmland before joining the A120 via a junction east of Bromley Road.

One local resident, Phil Marshall, told the county council's Development and Regulation Committee meeting that there were "conflicts of interest" at play.

"We have Essex County Council highways submitting to Essex County Council which rightly raises the issue of many conflicts of interest," he said.

Committee chairman John Jowers, said: "Legally we are the authority that has to determine.

"I can understand you feel this is kind of 'judging your homework' but I can assure you that over 20 years the dispassionate application of judicial process in this council has been formidable."

As well as the link road, councillors also approved new access routes to Ardleigh South Services and Colchester waste transfer station as well as three new roundabouts.

A spokesman for Ardleigh South Services said the scheme would make the business "unviable".

He said it would cause a 78% reductions in potential customers.

Council officer James Davidson said that signs would be installed for the services, but the designs were the only way to make the link road safe for motorists.

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