There has been traffic here for millennia, from the Roman legionaries who marched from Londinium to Camulodunum to the speedsters who now reportedly race against police cars at night. But part of the A12 in north-east Essex may finally find some peace if plans to transform a 2½-mile stretch into a country park come to fruition.
Work is due to start in 2027 on a bypass between the villages of Marks Tey and Kelvedon, west of Colchester, creating a six-lane road linking Ipswich and Harwich to London. Campaigners say the old four-lane road should be rewilded, as happened with a segment of the A2 near Gravesend, which became a Cyclopark in 2012. That site is now used by Olympic gold medallists Beth Shriever – also BMX world champion – and mountain biker Tom Pidcock.
Rosie Pearson of residents’ group Better Braintree – Together, said: “We have just had two weeks of Cop26 and heard talk and promises about preventing climate change. Here is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to rewild the current A12, while retaining access for the few residents directly on the route. A linear park would allow cycling, horse riding and dog walking. We should make some amends for the countryside we are about to destroy with the new road and the air pollution this will cause.”
Michaela Longo’s house is 30 metres from the existing A12, and hers would be one of half a dozen households stuck between two dual carriageways if both remain in use. “It doesn’t bear thinking about,” she said. “At the moment, we have long tailbacks, and in summer the pollution is very bad. We have farmland behind us, which is lovely, but that’s where the new road will go. If the traffic at the front from the old road was gone, I could deal with traffic at the back.”
Some members of Essex county council support the plan. Green party councillor Paul Thorogood said rewilding the section would “in a small way mitigate” damage caused by losing “valuable natural habitat in a county that is fast being concreted over”.
Ross Playle, a Conservative councillor, said turning the old Roman road back into “a route more favourable to walking would be entirely fitting.”
The consultation process began this month, and archaeologists have made more than 2,000 investigations, finding prehistoric, bronze age and Roman artefacts. A county council spokesman said it “welcomes suggestions, such as a country park, which would enhance the environment and mitigate climate change impacts”.
But Tony Mack, the retired engineer who was largely responsible for creating the Kent Cyclopark, says the journey is likely to be a long one. Mack, 80, a member of the Southend Wheelers club, heard about plans for the A2 bypass in 2003, and began writing to anyone who might be able to help create a cycling paradise. “It took me 10 years,” he said. “Kent county council told me: ‘We’re losing £600,000 a year. We need another park [to maintain] like a hole in the head.’”
He set up a forum to demonstrate that the idea was popular, and formed a new cycling club so British Cycling could support the project. It eventually contributed £600,000.
Then came £1m from Sport England – “they turned us down at first but we lobbied them” – and more funds from the Homes and Communities Agency, Kent county council and the Colyer-Fergusson charitable trust. Now the Cyclopark has a 2.9km road circuit, a BMX track, mountain bike trails, a skateboard park, an open air gym and more.
Mack said: “I knew that a road circuit wouldn’t be enough. I wanted a playground; I wanted mountain bike trails and a disability unit. And it’s all really accessible, just off the A2.”
