A top government minister came to see for himself a notorious blackspot two kilometre stretch of the A12 between Witham and Hatfield Peverel that has seen the deaths of five people and 50 serious accidents over three years.

The visit of roads minister, Keith Hill earlier this week came after hard lobbying from Braintree MP Alan Hurst who last week led a delegation of councillors and officials to the minister's offices in London.

Now says Mr Hurst, he hoped the minister will kick the scheme to build a new link roads between Witham and Hatfield Peverel into top gear.

"There is a wealth of difference between being told about a dangerous road problem and coming to see for oneself where people have died and been injured. We made our points forcefully at the ministerial meeting last week and left Keith Hill in no doubt as to our feeling about the performance so far of the Highways Agency.

"We now feel after his personal visit that things will at last start to move.

"The delays which have been created by the Highways Agency are totally unacceptable and their performance in this respect has been abysmal. Drivers who use this stretch of road and residents who are waiting to see work start have waited long enough."

The scheme was first given the green light by the government in January 1998 after pressure from all councils involved and Alan Hurst who raised the issue in a House of Commons adjournment debate.

Once completed the link road will mean local traffic travelling between Witham and Hatfield Peverel will no longer have to use the A12 and the on-off sliproads.

Traffic has rocketed on the Witham to Hatfield Peverel stretch of the A12 from 21,000 vehicles a day when the road was opened in 1965 to well over 80,000 a day.

The accident rate there is 50 per cent higher than the national A road rate and more than three times the national average for dual carriageways.

On the scene: roads minister Keith Hills (left) with Braintree MP Alan Hurst at the A12 accident blackspot at Hatfield Peverel.

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