Upgrade 2nd and 3rd Avenues to become dual carriageways, creating a faster West to East route across Harlow. This should reduce congestion along Elizabeth and Edinburgh Way, 1st and 4th Avenue and Southern Way.
Introduce a new road to link the A414 near Eastwick to The Pinnacles. This will considerably reduce congestion at the roundabouts near Harlow Town train station.
Bring forward the construction of a new road to link the A414 near Gilston to join the new junction 7a on the M11.
Improve parking facilities on Harlow’s housing estates.
Ensure that Essex County Council promptly carry out repairs to damaged roundabouts and other similar defects around the town and quickly removes all unused and damaged sign posts and other street furniture along verges and other ‘green’ spaces around the town.
Most of Harlow’s roads were built in the 1950’s and 1960’s and were not designed to take the type and number of vehicles that use them today. In other New Towns such as Stevenage and Basildon numerous dual carriageways were built but In Harlow most roads were built as single carriagways with some having space set aside to allow them to be upgraded into dual carriageways at some time in the future.
Plans to build Junction 7a has seen both Essex County Council and Harlow Council ignore the results of their consultations with residents, ignore missing air quality data and ignore the fact that traffic congestion will increase. A new junction on the M11 just two miles from the existing junction 7 will direct more traffic into the town from another direction. The real need is to bypass the town altogether using a ring road around the town and to have a modern road link through the town from east to west.
Both Essex County and Harlow Council have allowed Harlow’s roads to fall into a poor state of repair, leaving damaged roundabouts, railings and sign posts untouched for years. Parking on most housing estates has become more and more difficult to such a point that many roads have effectively become one way streets.
With the prospect of thousands of new homes being built in and around Harlow with thousands of jobs being created at The Pinnacles and The Science Park, traffice congestion in the town is set to be become much worse.