Traffic in north Essex came to a standstill as flood waters cut off villages and closed both carriageways of the A12.

Heavy rain on Saturday night flooded the northbound lane of the A12 at Kelvedon and Essex County Council engineers took the decision to close the lane yesterday (Sunday) morning to allow emergency crews to clean out drainage gulleys and ditches.

As rain fell throughout the morning the flood spread and the southbound carriageway was also closed to traffic.

Motorists were diverted through the villages of Feering and Kelvedon, which kept traffic slowly moving, but tailbacks built up which stretched south to Hatfield Peverel and north to Marks Tey.

For more information on the floods, see stories starting 'Floods: ...' in the drop-down menu at the bottom of this article

More flooding information on the Environment Agency website at http://www.environment-agency.gov.uk The road was closed throughout the day, but a police spokesman said the A12 was fully open this morning (Monday).

But traffic trying to get off the A12 found no safe passage elsewhere, as flooding hit almost every single road in the Braintree area.

The A120 east of Braintree at Bradwell was closed at 11am yesterday as floods near the Dolphin pub grew to a depth of two-feet. It was reopened at 9.30 this morning.

Approach roads to Stansted Airport were also covered in water and traffic trying to get off the M11 at junction 8 to reach the airport brought the motorway to a standstill.

Sgt Bob Beckwith of Bocking traffic police said: "The amount of traffic we have had today has been incredible, all day we've been trying to put across the message to people, if your journey isn't essential then don't go out.

"Unfortunately, I don't think people have been listening, I spoke to one man and he said he had made a trip out to see the flooding."

He added: "It's surprising how many people try to go through floods at speed. Put your car in first gear, give it a few revs more than standing and move slowly through the water.

Angela Loughran of the Environment Agency said flood warnings had been put on the Colne and Roman Rivers from Great Yeldham to Colchester, The Pant, Brain and Blackwater from Braintree to Witham, the Stour from Haverhill to Sudbury and the Tendring and Dengie peninsulas.

Mrs Loughran added: "We're asking people to be very aware of flooding in their area. Details can be found by calling our floodwatch line on 0845 9881188

Converted for the new archive on 19 November 2001. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.