THE shelving of the A120 link road scheme could mean a delay to separate plans to widen the A12 between Chelmsford and Marks Tey, leaked documents reveal.

National Highways is set to widen the A12 to three lanes between Chelmsford and Marks Tey in the coming years.

Under the blueprints the road will become three lanes in both directions from junction 19 at Boreham to junction 25 at Marks Tey.

As part of planned correspondence between the Department for Transport (DfT) and the Treasury, officials drafted a letter highlighting the impact of shelving a project to upgrade the A120 by creating a link road between Braintree and the A12.

The letter, drafted for a DfT minister, reads: “The opportunity of aligning with the adjacent A12 (Chelmsford to A120) scheme, without delaying it, has passed.”

It adds there would be “no feasible way” of mitigating the impact of progressing the A120 link road scheme separately to the A12 widening project.

It reads: "All alternatives have additional cost, schedule or local impacts by either delaying the A12 scheme to a time where it can coincide with the A120 scheme or by having the A120 scheme follow after the A12 scheme, meaning more years of disruption and the need to dig up part of the recently completed A12 scheme.

"As such, I am considering asking National Highways to investigate an alternative A120 scheme that could address some of the issues that the current A120 scheme sought to address but can be delivered separately.

"However, any such scheme is unlikely to deliver the overall level of benefits of the current scheme and would be delivered later."

Internal correspondence within the Department for Transport shows work on the A120 scheme has stopped after talks with the Treasury over funding pressures.

Leaked documents detail strategy over breaking the news to councils, MPs and the public.

In the documents, officials say stakeholders should be told about the decision to cease work on the project “on or before” July 21.