Letters of Complaint
Do you ever complain?
Here’s a collection of letters recently sent to Cllr Gerard Rice following the illustrative closure of Heath Road & Baker St, observed within the virtual journey video published by Highways England early in 2018 of the Lower Thames Crossing.
This collection of letters is prime example that there is nothing to be afraid of… Say things how you see it or how the proposed changes will impact your way of life or community… We cant ask for any more than that!
If Highways England didn’t receive community based feedback regarding their road proposals, they would only have business feedback to base their road designs on… and where would we be with that?
Your feedback is essential to ensure they hear your voice and your opinions… We know, by example, their solutions aren’t always perfect.. Therefore, communicate your thoughts at every opportunity… Because if you’re thinking it, then you can bet your bottom dollar you aren’t alone. The more people conveying the same message, must mean something ‘aint right’.
Anyhow, here’s a collection of heart felt written emails that have been shared with us for your encouragement.
Heath Road Closure
I would like to inform you that I am also opposed to the closure of heath road as well as the lower Thames crossing plans being anywhere near chadwell and Thurrock
Thurrock already has the bridge, tunnels, Tilbury dock and Stanford DPworld. The amount of pollution and respiratory problems this area has is already bad, it’s our poor children and future generations that will suffer. Please do whatever you can to prevent.
Thanks
Natalie
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We were astonished to learn that it has been decided to close Heath Road. We use this route to access the A1306 on our way to the local areas including Grays, Lakeside and the hospitals. Our understanding was that Local networks would not be affected, but this clearly would, the impact on traffic congestion if this route was not available would be immense particularly at the Cross Keys junction in Chadwell St Mary and at the Orsett Cock roundabout over the A13. The people of Chadwell St Mary will suffer considerably if this plan goes ahead. It would only take a minor incident locally and no one would be able to go anywhere, including the emergency services. We need Heath Road to remain open and for there to be access to the new roundabout that is planned.
Regards
Carole
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Having recently viewed the latest plans for the Thames Crossing I feel obliged to register my serious concerns regarding your proposals. I live in Orsett Heath and was outraged to see that you intend to not only close Hornsby Lane but also make Heath Road into a cul-de-sac. This means that all the residents of Orsett Heath can only gain access to their properties via Chadwell-St.-Mary a circuitous and tortuous route especially if wishing to travel to the West, resulting in greatly increased journey times and considerable frustration. A spokesman for Highways England stated “We understand people’s concerns about environmental, noise and air quality impacts. We will be carrying out detailed assessments of each of these areas and where necessary we will develop solutions to minimise the impact on local communities” May I suggest to you that greatly reducing our means of access certainly is not minimising the impact on our local community. Heath Road can easily be connected to the proposed roundabout on the A1013 thus maintaining our much used a needed local distributor. I was also told at one of the Public Consultation events that both Heath Road and Hornsby Lane would remain open and accessible from the A1013. I therefore respectfully request that you revise your proposals to accommodate access to both Heath Road and Hornsby Lane from both ends thus facilitating easy and uninterrupted access to our properties. The vertical alignment shows the highway at existing ground level when it passes in front of the properties of Foxes Green, Heath Road and Greyhound Lane, if it is lowered at this point and constructed in cutting it would minimised the visual intrusion and go a long way to reduce the noise impact, better still keep it covered at this point which would help to reduce the pollution levels as well. I have been a Highways Engineer for over 50 years and I would welcome the opportunity to discuss this matter further with you and your team if it would serve to obtain a better and more acceptable scheme that actually minimises the impact on my local community.
Yours Sincerely
John
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Dear sir,
I wish to voice my anger at your plans to close Heath Road.All the way through your dealings with the local people you have tried to kid us that this major road your bulldozing through our much loved local area,against our wishes and imposing what you want on us is not going to change our villages and local areas,well now we start to see the truth.I’m not an important person ,I dont run a big business or travel out of Essex to work but I’ve lived here most of my life and my voice should count. I love this place,I live here and work here and your big road is going to change this area for ever,and not for the better for local people. And now you plan to shut Heath Road,depriving local people going about their every day lives of one of the small roads out of our village and part of our familiar village layout.Can high ways England not see that this is just one more way that it is taking away all our familiar places. I strongly suggest some one from your team comes here and actually drives our roads at different times of the day. The Cross keys cant support any more traffic.The Orsett cock roundabout is often at a stand still,us the local people use Heath road every day.We deserve to be listened to. This is a well used local route,why should local people have to go off up duel carriageways and get involved in main road driving just to get about. I do not see why I should have to use main roads for local travel. I use the Heath road every day.I support the local shop there and I am so up set about you planing to make it a dead end. I will stand by Thurrock council against you over this. As will all the local people. I will stand with the council to demand a judicial review. You have lied to us at all your public consultations. We all thought you were lying and trying to hide a lot of your plans from us and now we know you were. Michelle Hull
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We hear from a reliable source that one element of the Lower Thames Crossing plan involves the closure of Heath Road – that is the blocking of one end, so denying access on to the A1306. This is a disappointing and frankly astonishing revelation, given the assurances seen about local road networks and the minimising of impact on local communities.
It is bad enough that much needed homes are to be destroyed in the implementation of this plan and closure of this road will increase the detrimental impact on local residents. To be clear, Heath Road is not some minor back road used only by a few residents for access to their properties. It is an important route for thousands of residents of Chadwell St Mary on journeys to and from Grays and the surrounding roads and villages. It is used by service and delivery vehicles and especially by emergency services. If this route is closed off, there will be a commensurate increase in traffic volumes on the Brentwood Road, including the A13/A128 and the Cross Keys junctions – both of which are busy and heavily used at certain times of the day. Such a closure would increase the isolation of the Chadwell St Mary community and lengthen journey times by 10 to 15 minutes for all journeys at peak periods. This would especially lead to increased risk in case of emergencies. Equally concerning is the difficulty in finding any reference to this intention in your published information or through general research on the subject. This lack of clear information is typical of the vagueness amounting almost to misdirection that has been a feature of the Lower Thames Crossing consultation and information release. If it is indeed true that Heath Road is to be closed, we must protest in the strongest possible terms. The Lower Thames Crossing will already cause a blight on our environment and lives and this proposal will further increase the detrimental effect, in both the short and long term. Please confirm the reality or otherwise of this proposal and what alternative routes are proposed to reduce the impact on local residents and their safety.
Yours faithfully
Kevin
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To Mr Jones
After watching the video of the new Thames crossing. I have been growing increasingly concerned as to how close this passes chadwell flats to which I am a resident.
I have since been informed that this road is to be around 1000 yards from the flats. I have a few questions, Firstly the 1000 yards is this from the buildings or from the edge of the car park? What plans are in place between yourself and Thurrock council to sound proof the flats against the extra traffic? As we are all aware the flats were built and long time ago and there wouldn’t have been any sound proofing done at the time due to not being the amount of traffic that the new road will bring. Thank you for your time and I look forward to your response.
Regards Joe
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Dear Sir,
as a resident of Gowers Lane, Chadwell St Mary I must protest in the strongest terms regarding the suggested closure of Heath Road at the junction with A1013. This is our major access route and once Hornsby Lane is closed it will be our only access apart from the A128 which is already experiencing congestion at peak times.
Yours faithfully
Colin
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Dear Mr Jones. As a resident of Harding Road which is situated off Heath Road in Chadwell-St-Mary I am writing to raise the following points concerning the above matter. I guess that as you will probably receive much correspondence on this matter I will brief. 1) If Heath Road were to be closed the only access for The Emergency services would be via the A128 from The Orsett Cock to the North or The Cross Keys from the South. 2) Current access to/from the A13 at the Orsett Cock is currently jammed at peak times and whenever there is a problem at Thurrock Lakeside or on The Dartford Crossing. The A13 was the alternative route on these occasions, now it gets gridlocked as well, as does the road through West Thurrock, so there are now no alternative routes for residents to use. Additional traffic flow at the A128/Orsett Cock will only add to the congestion. I would suggest that you check the stats for the North Stifford roundabout when the aformentioned delays occur and the resultant tailbacks. 3) Regarding the junction at The Cross Keys. There are queues there for most of the day added to which there is a Filling Station with a Tesco on the junction which creates a tailback onto the road when they are busy. 4) If this ill throughout plan goes through then the only way to avoid snarlups for us locals will be to drive through residential Chadwell-St-Mary onto the Linford Road on onwards to Stanford-Le-Hope via Linford. I would envisage that the residents of Orsett Village may well find that they have become a very popular cut through for the same reasons as previously stated. I await the progression of this matter with keen interest,
Yours Sincerely
Bill
We have many more examples on file so if you feel compelled to write in and you need more inspiration, do get in touch with your local ward councillor or us here at TCAG.
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