Cannon Consulting Engineers' Highways and Transport Review - Local Plan Review 2042 - Regulation 18; Land South West of Coggeshall Road Kelvedon Essex, April 2026

As part of our response to Braintree District Council's Regulation 18 consultation on their Draft Local Plan, Kelvedon Against Urban Sprawl (KAUS) commissioned a professional traffic consultancy report. This was funded using monies raised from donations to KAUS and we would like to thank all who have made a contribution so far.

Here is Cannon's Executive Summary:-

The report provides a review of the Braintree District Council (BDC) Regulation 18 Local Plan Highways Evidence Base as it relates to proposed Strategic Growth Locations (SGLs) at Kelvedon and Feering, with specific focus on the Kings Dene allocation.

The report provides a review of the Braintree District Council (BDC) Regulation 18 Local Plan Highways Evidence Base as it relates to proposed Strategic Growth Locations (SGLs) at Kelvedon and Feering, with specific focus on the Kings Dene allocation.

The evidence base does not show how the following can be accommodated on an already critically constrained B1024 corridor, especially in the absence of the cancelled A12 and A120 improvement schemes, previously assumed to be essential.

LPR 26 - 1,850 dwellings at Kings Dene within the plan period (Inclusive of 600 dwellings at Monks Farm – Application 21/03579),

LPR 26 the full 5,600 dwellings proposed in total, or

LPR 25 Land South East of Feering - 835 dwellings (Crown Estate – Application 26/00119)

The Local Plan’s strategic assumptions rely heavily on infrastructure that does not exist, is not funded, and is no longer programmed. The cancellation of these schemes removes the foundational basis upon which prior Local Plan decisions were made.

The emerging evidence:

does not test the complete allocation,

does not model cumulative impacts of existing applications,

does not provide required zone loading transparency,

does not evaluate alternative infrastructure strategies, and

does not provide any demonstration that Kelvedon High Street or Station Road can be meaningfully relieved.

Current data — including discussions from the previous 2017 highways evidence which supported the current adopted local plan, site observations undertaken on 25 February 2026 — confirm that key junctions and links are already failing during peak periods. Without major new strategic infrastructure, the SGLs proposed at Kelvedon and Feering cannot be considered deliverable or sound under the NPPF tests of:

Justification,

Effectiveness,

Deliverability, and

Consistency with national policy.