RESIDENTS say Essex County Council’s refusal to buy their property, located just yards from a planned new dual carriageway, has ruined their lives.

At its closest point, the new road linking the A133 and A120, would be just 63m away from Mount Pleasant Cottages in Elmstead.

The new road is being built to enable a new 9,000 home new town to go ahead and could potentially carry up to 20,000 vehicles a day.

Documents submitted as part of the planning application have admitted the properties, in 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.

However Adele High, who lives with husband Simon and their two teenage sons at Mount Pleasant Cottages, said the impact the project is having financially and mentally has “ruined” their lives.

The couple have submitted an informal blight request to force Essex 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”.

'We want out'

Gazette:

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 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 Essex County Council 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.

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.”

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'We are being forced to put up with it'

Linda Blanchette, 59, who has lived at 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 County Hall's economic renewal, infrastructure and planning boss 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.”