TRAFFIC calming measures at Woodlands Park are under threat because of delays by Essex County Council in processing the proposals. That is according to a claim made this week by Cllr Mark Gaylor, district councillor for Dunmow North Ward. He said: Davina

TRAFFIC calming measures at Woodlands Park are under threat because of delays by Essex County Council in processing the proposals.

That is according to a claim made this week by Cllr Mark Gaylor, district councillor for Dunmow North Ward.

He said: "Davina Millership, Essex County Council's west area acting highways manager, told Uttlesford District Council's East Area Panel she was prioritising other schemes because the end of the financial year was near."

She said she would lose the money for other projects if they were not completed by the end of March.

Ms Millership explained that as the Woodlands Park Drive scheme was being funded by developers Wickford Development Company (WDC), there was less financial pressure to complete the scheme.

However, WDC says it may withdraw the funding if the county council does not proceed with the approval quickly.

Cliff Neale, consultant surveyor for WDC, said: "We have been chasing this matter up for months now and there has been very little progress since the consultation earlier in the year.

"We are very keen to see the traffic calming implemented and are frustrated at the delays."

WDC said it needed to proceed with surfacing work at the far end of Woodlands Park Drive and did not want to surface the road, only to dig it up again once the traffic calming scheme had been approved.

Cllr Gaylor said: "It would be appalling if the opportunity to secure traffic calming in Woodlands Park Drive was lost because of the county council's inefficiency.

"They have had since last June to revise the scheme after receiving objections. We are still waiting for them to publish formal proposals. I would hate there to be a serious accident during these delays."

An Essex County Council spokesman said: "The Woodlands Park Drive scheme has not been actively delayed by us. After receiving objections in June/July there was another meeting with the developers to see how the scheme could be amended. The scheme has now been modified. We lost an engineer in August which has reduced the resources available for progressing all schemes."

He said Essex County Council would need to formally deal with objections involving a decision by cabinet members and said that that process was likely to be completed by 2007/8.

Woodlands Park resident Lisa Burgess said: "I just can't believe it is taking so long. The more it drags out the higher the chance of someone being hit by a car as they try to cross the road. I just can't understand it."

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