Another Highways disaster from the Conservatives

"A year ago, the County Council was working on a 'road safety' scheme for the Epping New Road from the City Limits roundabout to the Warren Wood pub. Only Loughton County Councillors were consulted about the proposals," says Buckhurst Hill Councillor Ann Haigh.

"The idea was to provide a cycle track, 'junction protection' measures at Epping Forest car park entrances and the Rangers Road/ Manor Road junction and 'car parking improvement' at the Warren Wood. We now have a year's experience of it and we are terrified. We have been waiting ages for a safety audit from the County Council, so we have done one of our own.

"The cycle track is a foot wide, restricted by leaves, litter and gully grids. Experienced cyclists have told us that the layout is dangerous.

"At the car park entrances, stretches of foot/cycle path have been constructed but cyclists rarely use them because they have to divert from their line of travel. We believe that decelerating and right-turn lanes would have been a much better investment.

"We agreed with the 40 mph limit, but it starts/ends too far north, only 300 yards from the car park entrance on the straight 'murder' mile. Drivers travelling north overtake at the end of the 40 mph limit and are still overtaking at the car park entrance. This stretch of the road has an appalling accident record and we believe that is now more dangerous. We believe that the speed limit boundary should be moved south to near the Warren entrance and that street lighting should be extended to there to reinforce the limit.

"We believe that the notorious Rangers Road/ Manor Road junctions should have mini-roundabouts, even if that also means a short section of 30 mph limit. Sight lines are so limited that turns into Epping New Road are often risky.

"Finally the Warren Wood improvements have left us speechless! What madness led to the idea of reducing the road width on a main road to prevent two HGVs from passing the point at the same time? The residents' parking bay constructed in front of the cottages is so narrow that vehicles have been stuck by passing traffic. The build-out is a suicidal structure often masked by parked cars. Why on earth did no one consider right-turn lane into a petrol station and pub car-park, protected by traffic islands?

"All of this disaster cost £250,000 to construct. Was this a good use of your County Council Tax? We think not."