A public meeting to answer vital questions on the multi-million pound A130 bypass has been shelved amid fears eco-warriors would "hijack" it.

Local residents called on county council officers in September to come to the village to answer their questions about the controversial scheme.

Instead, information about the road from John Sanders, manager of transport and operational services at county hall, has been printed in the village newsletter.

Colin Cranley, a county council principal engineer, said: "Mr Sanders reckoned that in his experience he would get a better hearing in a written form rather than face to face, because of the possible disruption."

Suggestions that the meeting, to have been chaired by the Rettendon Parish Council, be by invitation and that questions be submitted in writing were considered.

Ron Fallows, chairman of Rettendon Parish Council, said: "The county council's view was that the best interests would not be served by having the meeting as it would be hijacked.

"They were unwilling to come along to something which, in their view, would just be hijacked by the anti-road protesters.

"We want to advise people in the community and there is a page in the village newsletter which I concocted from information from the county council. It is not hard line for or against the road but gives people the facts."

Pat Meyn, a local resident who lives in Meadow Road, said: "I think they should have come down. There are a lot of questions that villagers have. We need a bypass but I think we have been kept in the dark about what's being done. Give us the real facts.

"I don't think the village as a whole has the facts about the road, such as that it's going to be a motorway-style road and the kinds of development that is going to start after it has been built.

"They can select the facts they want to use and they can be worded in such a way as to give the wrong impression."

In the newsletter the county council states that work on the road, which was due to start this autumn, will begin this winter.

Trenches are currently being dug to check for archaeological remains. Meanwhile solicitors have begun legal proceedings to evict eco-warriors camped at Gorse Wood, Rettendon, since May in protest at the road.

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