WHEN Marks and Spencer announced it was pulling out of Colchester High Street to focus on an out-of-town shop, some were horrified.

The shop had been at the heart of Colchester city centre for a century but times were changing.

Despite the protests, bosses at M and S could feel vindicated by the decision to swap city centre for Stane retail park.

Figures from M and S have shown recent sales across stores already revamped as part of its overhaul had traded better than expected.

And the clothing and home sales are 26 per cent ahead of plans in its new Colchester store.

But there is a down side to this. M and S became part of the out-of-town Stanway shopping complex which also includes Mountain Warehouse, Furniture Village, Aldi, B&Q, and Greggs.

And with the lure for shoppers comes traffic...lots of it.

A spokesman for the property developers Churchmanor said there were strong signs of shopper interest and said Furniture Village had enjoyed a particularly strong start.

But as for the congestion problems, he said: “We are aware that at peak times there has been congestion on the Sainsbury’s roundabout, which in turn has caused delays in exiting the car park.

“We are working with Essex Highways to examine solutions to this as a matter of urgency.”

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Planning for the retail development was set out in official papers as far back as 2017 and initially, there did seem to be a consideration towards the impact that such a heavy influx of shoppers would have on the area.

In a travel plan statement for phase one of Stane Retail Park, dated October 2017, paragraphs of the report appear to suggest planners would adopt an ethos which would allow people to walk or cycle to the retail park, as opposed to travelling there by car.

One part of the travel plan statement read: “This travel plan aims to provide a long term travel management strategy designed to reduce single occupancy car use to and from work, business travel requirements and to tackle localised congestion.

“Sustainable alternatives to single occupancy car use are to be promoted such as car sharing, public transport, walking and cycling.”

But the theory has not been matched in reality with congestion becoming a major issue for shoppers at the retail park and those living in the area.

Other objectives in the document include reducing parking congestion, CO2 emissions, and demonstrating corporate social and environmental responsibility but few could these objectives have so far been met.

Lesley Scott-Boutell, the councillor for Stanway, could see the problems coming.

But with the power over infrastructure lying with Essex County Council, all residents and councillors can do is voice their objections in the hope something, anything, is done.

Mrs Scott-Boutell said: “I always had reservations about the infrastructure in that area - I was saying that we needed the highways infrastructure before occupation work.

“As local people, we are in the hands of the authorities and Essex Highways I could never have stopped the development because I’m not the highways authority.

“What I can do is I can mitigate, and when we do have problems, I represent residents by supplying their evidence [to Essex highways] to back up what I’m saying.”

Email after email has been sent from Mrs Scott-Boutell’s account to Essex Highways containing the objections of residents, and although discussions are in place to try to solve the congestion in the area, words have yet to be turned into action.

Mrs Scott-Boutell added: “What I know is happening is that meetings are taking place between the developers and Essex County Council to come to a resolution as to what to do.

“In fairness to Churchmanor, they are trying to deal with it, and there were marshals there [on-site] during peak times over Christmas.

“I do flag these things up - these problems need to be looked at and they are being looked at.

“The good news is that this has triggered a conversation which is ongoing.”

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The overarching frustration remains, however, that such issues were avoidable.

Colchester's High Steward Sir Bob Russell argued it is not only the roads which are unable to handle the level of shoppers; car parks too, are sometimes not coping with demand.

“Quite clearly, the car parking is inadequate the sites are not getting the turnover they could be getting if the car parks were bigger.

“The planners can only do what the Highways authority say, but there has been a combination over the years of the planners not considering the impact of what they are doing on the surrounding area, and the city centre.”