CAMPAIGNERS have hit back at a decision to give a £100million link road the green light.

The new A133/A120 link road, along with a Rapid Transport System to the east of Colchester, is being funded with £99 million of Government money secured by Essex County Council to deliver infrastructure to help support a new garden town of 9,000 homes.

The planned route will leave the A133 via a roundabout east of the University of Essex, cutting across 2.4 km of open arable farmland before joining the A120 via a junction east of Bromley Road.

Essex county councillors voted the plans through by a majority of seven.

But residents of Mount Pleasant Cottages say the council’s refusal to buy their properties - estimated to be just 63 metres away from the new road - has badly affected them.

Simon and Adele High say they will be putting their house on the market after Christmas and if they cannot sell it at market rate, the council can expect blight proceedings to follow.

Simon said: “Our last correspondence said if we can’t sell our house, if we don’t get any interest or we can’t sell at market price, then we’ll be going back to them to say they have blighted us.”

He added: “They acknowledge your presence but choose to ignore you. That is what we have found through the whole process.

“We get mentioned in the planning documents, but their stance from day one is ‘yes you’re there, we have put mitigation measures in, we know you’re affected, but we don’t really care’.”

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Residents of the new development would be able to access the strategic road network via a spur road on to the A120.

A spokesman for Essex County Council said: “We, of course, accept this is an emotive issue and hopefully the planning approval gives a degree of certainty for the homeowner.

“We recognise Mount Pleasant Cottages will be affected by the new link road running nearby, and appropriate assessments have been carried out and mitigation proposed to reduce this impact.

“We have and will continue to liaise with both sets of homeowners at the cottages to discuss mitigation options moving forward as well as any future blight application they wish to bring forward.”