MP Sir Bernard Jenkin to boycott A1331 link road works event

Harwich and North Essex MP, Sir Bernard Jenkin has said he will boycott the A1331 link road start of construction event on Friday as “nobody can say when it will be finished”.

The project which is being carried out by contractor Octavius Infrastructure will see the new road link the A120 and the A133.

It will create a 1.8km dual carriageway with three junctions running between the A133 to the east of Essex University and the new ‘Allen’s Farm roundabout’ to the north. 

Boycotting - Sir Bernard Jenkin (Image: Conservatives) The project has come after a successful £99.9 million bid from Homes England which will see the construction of thousands of new homes.

However, there has been worries to whether appropriate funding will be available for the link road project ahead of the construction of the homes. 

Essex County Council said the work is estimated to take around 20 months, setting the completion date around April 2026. 

But a report published last month for the Tendring Colchester Border Garden Community project suggests new key dates for the stages of the vital A1331 link road. 

The report includes a number of scenarios, which place the end of the first phase of the A1331 “by March 2026”. 

Yet it also said the link road could be completed by 2041 or 2051, with the rapid transit scheme and park and ride amenities at full operation in 2051. 

Sir Jenkin has now written a letter to the Labour Housing Secretary and Deputy Prime Minister, MP Angela Rayner about the situation.

Sir Bernard wrote: “I cannot agree to attend such an event. 

“It is crazy to fund the start of a new road project when nobody can say when it will be finished, so that it can serve its primary purpose. 

“Nor can anyone say where the additional money will come from to get it finished. 

“This a currently set to be a ‘road to nowhere’.”

Elsewhere in the letter, Sir Bernard explains how the new road is “essential to enable the construction of up to 9,000 new homes to go ahead”.

Without the link road, he claims “1,000 new homes on the site will cause unacceptable traffic congestion and chaos in the existing roads.”

Sir Bernard added: “Without an uplift in the grant to build and to complete this road, I cannot see how the whole Tendring and Colchester Borders Community project can go ahead. 

“I will certainly oppose it unless and until we get the money needed.”

Essex County Council leader, Councillor Kevin Bentley, has reacted.

Essex County Council leader - Councillor Kevin Bentley (Image: Essex County Council)

He said: "The road is essential to ensure we have infrastructure and there are clear plans to complete it.

"However, this new Government with it’s huge housing targets must understand that infrastructure has to come first which is beyond roads.

“It is doctors and dentist surgeries, shops and public transport facilities.

"We will continue to fight for these things and not just build houses without them."