Transport

Public transport is disjointed and does not meet the needs of the South Woodham Ferrers community. The service is general infrequent and prone to delay and cancellation. The various companies have little incentive to plan their timetables alongside each other, resulting in poorly connecting service. There are no direct public transport links between our town and key destinations, such as Basildon, Chelmsford and Southend hospitals, Maldon, Stanstead airport. People are therefore choosing to drive for convenience.

There is a pressing need for interconnecting services including connecting rail and bus services that enable residents to easily travel around our town avoiding the need to drive.

Essex County Council is responsible for providing transport service throughout Essex, including South Woodham Ferrers. Where services are not provided by commercial transport operators the County Council are able to provide services. Therefore, we need to influence improved transport provision whilst encouraging residents to make use of services. This could be achieved through improved marketing.

Commercial operators should be subject to scrutiny over the services they provide and be subject to sanction where services fall short.

Fares should be pitched at a level that, particularly at off-peak times, encourage increased transport usage and not, as is currently the case, act as a deterrent.

Transport hubs should be set up to encourage active and sustainable modes of transport hire bicycles and e-scooter should be made available together with sufficient charging facilities and secure storage must be provided, as is the case in Chelmsford. Such provision would encourage resident usage; the railways station and the central ASDA carpark are obvious locations.

Essex Highways have a large road network to manage; tough decisions have to be made. However South Woodham Ferrers cannot be ignored. Poor road quality affects private cars, public transport, cyclists, and pedestrians. Timely action needs to be taken to maintain the road network avoiding potholes and costly major repairs. Similarly, pavements and footpaths must be effectively maintained to avoid longer term cost and prevent injury to residents.

Mobility is important to a thriving economy and essential to a number of critical services. Well maintained roads would extend the usability of ambulances, fire engines and police vehicles, enabling these services to direct resource to the front-line.

It is essential that cyclists are able to use the road network safely; the creation of dedicated cycleways would meet this need. We recognise that this would require investment but consider such investment to be worthwhile and beneficial to residents and the environment.

Getting children to school can present a significant challenge many residents opt to use their cars as this seems the quickest and safest means of travel. However, many of our roads in the vicinity of schools are both congested and unsafe for pedestrians, cyclists and scooter users due to the sheer volume of traffic and parked vehicles. Add to this increased levels of pollutants created by petrol and diesel engines reducing air quality and leading to poor health, especially for children, the elderly and other vulnerable residents.

The Park & Ride services are popular with many residents and have helped greatly reduce the number of cars entering Chelmsford City Centre, however, roads continue to be congested Currently, the cost of Park & Ride only benefits single travelers, or those eligible for concessions. Where there is more than one fare paying person in a car it is cheaper to use a City Centre car park, defeating the object of the Park & Ride scheme.

Essex County Council manage the Park & Ride scheme, whilst Chelmsford City Council operate the public City Centre car parks. It is essential that the two councils work closely together to ensure that their pricing structures reduce transport congestion in Chelmsford City Centre whilst reducing the burden on taxpayers. This is particularly important at a time when the future of the Army and Navy roundabout is being considered in order to minimise disruption whilst the new junction is being constructed.

Essex County Council have plans to improve provision for people who cycle into Chelmsford having parked in Sandon; we fully support this provision and consider that a dedicated cycleway from the Park & Ride would be beneficial.

There is a pressing need for there to be a bypass around South Woodham Ferrers at a time when major housing developments in and around the town are planned. There is also a proposal to site a new nuclear power station at Bradwell which may bring high volumes of construction traffic. Even now, during peak times the roads around South Woodham Ferrers are at or close to full capacity resulting in daily congestion.

Features such as trees and shrubs are important assets to both private gardens and public spaces, however we have to be mindful of the potential negative aspects too. Overhanging greenery is a serious safety issue, both narrowing the pavement for pedestrians and obstructing visibility for drivers.

Furthermore, poorly planned tree plantings have resulted in considerable damage to our pavements and pathways from root growth.

Residents still need to use cars to access places not currently or unreliably RELIABLY? connected to the public transport system. However, on street parking has become a big issue around our town. It seems a number of residents choose to park their vehicles on the road even when they have space to park off-road. Others park their work vehicles in residential areas for convenience. Users of the railway network park in nearby roads (rather than pay to park in the huge carpark at the station), and parents and carers of school children often do the same twice a day clogging up whole neighbourhoods. Vehicles are even parked on pavements blocking the way for pedestrians, mobility scooter and wheelchair users e.g. outside Warwick Parade. We would support new parking restrictions, bollarded or fenced kerbs, and parking permits where there are regular problems for road users and residents. We would also support more affordable station carpark charges together with the opening up of the full area if additional capacity is required.