Colchester's new £100m link road cost spirals by £21m

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

The cost of a planned £100m road to enable development of a 9,000-home garden town has spiralled by about £21m, a council has said.

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

However, Essex County Council said extra funding was needed and also requested the deadline for completion be extended by a year to August 2025.

The issues will be discussed next week.

The government had allocated £99m of Housing Infrastructure Fund money for the delivery of the link road and a rapid transport system to enable the development of a new garden town on the Tendring and Colchester border.

The county council - which gave planning permission for the road at the time costed at £70m in November 2021 - admitted there was a risk that Homes England and the Treasury would not be willing to fund the cost escalation of £21.25m in full, or agree to the programme extension, 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 council is currently negotiating land acquisition bids, which could add both to the cost and the time-scale of the project.

The council said that before it can begin construction of the road, it needed to secure ownership of the relevant land.

A spokesman said: "Whilst it remains the ambition to acquire land by agreement, [the council] is preparing compulsory purchase orders to ensure the overall programme can be met."

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