There can be no doubt of the need for a new A120 route from Braintree to the A12 to improve the flow of traffic and for the need to address environmental concerns.

All five routes cross our land. Options B and C are the most direct from the M11 to Colchester.

The River Blackwater has environmental importance and I invite the Coggeshall protestors, as reported in the Times on May 3, to come and look at the Braintree bypass where it crosses the River Blackwater on our land, or they should look at the River Brain crossing below Freeport.

In each case a single arch culvert was constructed and huge earth ramps were built up and over the culvert.

This allowed continuous roadside hedges to be planted right up to and over the top of the river, creating a wildlife corridor and almost completely isolating the road from the surrounding fields.

Options B and C could also produce an opportunity to incorporate some emergency flood control for Kelvedon.

These routes crossing large areas of ex-gravel workings between Bradwell and Coggeshall will save the loss of more good agricultural land.

Some of the new road can be in a cutting there, causing less impact on its surroundings. Construction will be no more difficult than the boggy land crossed when the A120 was built from the M11 to Braintree.

The planning permission is well in hand for the Rivenhall recycling depot and a flyover connection to a new A120 would alleviate the local traffic problem.

We are all hearing of the shortage of housing, and the West Tey project seems well advanced to ease some of this.

Routes C and E involve an expensive and unnecessary second crossing of the Brain Valley and Braintree railway.

A new flyover can be built north east of Galleys corner and link roads to it, without interfering with the existing traffic route.

Once completed, Galleys corner roundabout can be bulldozed and tarmacked very quickly, allowing unhindered traffic flow east west What we all need to do now is to lobby hard for the much-needed new road to incorporate many of the environmental enhancements built into the A120 from Braintree to the M11 and improve on them.

Jonathan Dixon Smith

Lanhams Farm, Cressing