'Lower Thames crossing will ruin our village'

Residents living in a village beside the path of a proposed new Lower Thames Crossing have called on the government to finally make a decision.

Those living in Orsett Heath in Thurrock, Essex, say the plans have been "looming" over them for years, leaving them unable to sell their homes and move out.

The government says it won’t make a decision on the £8.3bn crossing between Essex and Kent until May next year.

Susan Bell, who moved to the village from Norfolk seven years ago, said: "It’s like one of those bad little things that keeps reoccurring and ruining the whole structure of this little place."

Plans for the new Lower Thames Crossing have been in the public domain for 15 years, with millions already spent on land purchases and documents, but no final decision has yet been made.

Mrs Bell, 70, built her own house on land she bought along Hornsby Lane, but under the proposals that country lane will be cut in half to make for a new road connecting the crossing with the A13 and M25.

She said: "We came from Norfolk to live near our children and we said this is a little bit of Norfolk here, it’s all countryside, it’s all pleasant and now it could all change.

"When you buy a home you think that home is going to be your home forever and suddenly on the whim of somebody they think they can spend billions on a road, well I think we need to spend it more on people."

Paul Walker has lived in the village for 11 years and first looked at selling his home when the plans emerged.

He said: "It’s the worst thing in the world for us, with the congestion and the pollution. We looked at moving, but as soon as people know about the Lower Thames Crossing it deters them.

"I just want a decision now."

Not everyone in the village is against the new plans, given the congestion the current crossing causes across Thurrock.

George Sykes-Waller, 79, and Susan Knowles, 65, use the Orsett Heath allotments, despite living elsewhere in the borough.

Mr Sykes-Waller, from Stifford Clays, said: "I think it ought to come through. They’ve spent a lot of money doing the survey on it and I think just to shelve it would be the wrong decision."

Mrs Knowles, from Corringham, added: "We might get a load of noise when the road goes through, but we need it."

The new Lower Thames Crossing would be set further east from the current bottleneck at Dartford, connecting the A2 and M2 in Kent with the A13 and M25 in Essex via a new tunnel.

It would arrive in Essex east of Tilbury and loop round marshland and villages like Orsett Heath before connecting to major roads.

Thurrock Council has urged the government to use the delay to consider the "impact" the new road would have.

Labour council leader John Kent said: "These current plans would do nothing to improve congestion locally or regionally and would add little capacity to the national strategic road network.

"They would, however, cut Thurrock in two, severing communities, bring huge amounts of pollution to the borough, but bring no discernible benefits for local people."

A statement from Transport Secretary Louise Haigh said the delay was "to allow more time for the application to be considered further, including any decisions made as part of the spending review".