‘Flawed’ Essex County Council report into Grove Hill traffic prompts meeting between residents and Stansted parish councillors

Residents and parish councillors are to meet to discuss the results of a “flawed” traffic survey of Stansted’s Grove Hill.

The parish council will get together with concerned householders on September 25 to decide on a plan of action after both were critical of the findings of a report by highways authority Essex County Council (ECC) into traffic use of the road that leads to Elsenham.

They claim the analysis, of which they have been shown only an excerpt, left “so many unanswered questions”.

The survey concluded there is little evidence of the village being overrun with HGVs, scuppering hopes of a lorry ban.

It found lorry use was “relatively low in comparison with similar roads of this classification. The general amount of expected HGV use is around 5% of all vehicles – at Grove Hill the use was found to be 2.5%”.

ECC currently has no powers to enforce lorries that flout the weight limit and therefore installing cameras was also not an option.

Diverting lorries via Hall Road to Takeley was also not feasible, it concluded, with the only appropriate and cheapest solution being to remove residents’ parking bays to allow for an uninterrupted two-way traffic flow.

Residents said the report “only goes to highlight the inadequacies and the lack of knowledge and experience of the team carrying out this survey and compound the frustrations of the residents at not being heard”.

Stansted district and parish councillor Geoffrey Sell said the excerpt from the survey that was made public came with no dates for when it was carried out and was “very negative” in terms of finding a solution.

“We thought it actually missed an important point about Grove Hill, which is you cannot escape the fact it is a narrow road with houses almost on the road, which is not the case with an alternative route via Hall Road [in Elsenham],” he said.

“The excerpt we received has no date on it, which would have been helpful. We’ve made a request to see the whole report.”

He said the next step was for the parish council to meet with residents before considering its final response.

Campaigner and Grove Hill resident Andrew McDonnell said: “It is imperative that residents are involved in all discussions and decisions because the report in question is flawed and it is obvious whoever is compiling it is wrong and does not know the village roads.

“Only the people who witness the daily numerous issues can accurately give a true account of the problems, and it is disappointing that after all these years the same points are incorrectly reported.”