RESIDENTS and councillors has expressed concern about the implications of the closure of Buckingham Hill Road – planned for Monday to facilitate the reopening of the civic tip and recycling centre at Linford.

As part of the reopening planning Thurrock Council has announced that the road will be closed north of the tip between early morning and evening to ensure there are no problems with access into and from the tip as it is likely there will be a lengthy queue of traffic.

However, a consequence of that action is that the many HGVs who use Buckingham Hill Road, plus all the additional cars going to and from the trip, will have to use either Walton Hall Road and Butts Lane going into Stanford-le-Hope to the east and Linford Road going into Chadwell St Mary in the west.

There are a number of quarries and landfill sites in the area, plus industrial units processing scrap metal in east Tilbury and many of the vehicles that service them will now have to make a diversion. Lorries going to and from Tarmac Building Products' site at Linford, where Durox aerated blocks are manufactured will also have to divert.

Traffic issues are already compounded by the long term closure of Fort Road approaching Tilbury because the rebuilding of a bridge for the Tilbury 2 port project.

It appears the plans for the reopening of the tip and traffic issues have been drawn up without consultation with, or notice to local councillors.

Cllr Fraser Massey in East Tilbury says he has contacted the council and is seeking more information, while Chadwell St Mary Cllr Gerard Rice says he is extremely angry not to have been formally forewarned – or consulted – that significant additional traffic will be going through his ward.

'Not well thought out'

"The problem is the people making these decisions don't know the area, they don't live here and they don't care about the impact their decisions make on local lives," he told Thurrock Nub News.

"I have no doubt we will now get additional traffic through Chadwell St Mary disturbing residents.

"It's bad enough when Buckingham Hill Road is closed for the A13 widening, but that's over the weekend. On a weekday the traffic will be much heavier.

"Yes we won't have as many private cars as usual, though no doubt there will be lots rushing to the tip, but the lorries and the big scrap trucks have not stopped going during the coronavirus lockdown. They are still going backwards and forwards and will now be looking to avoid queues and finding their way round any hold-ups.

"We have seen the big lorries coming down Heath Road, for example, taking short cuts. No doubt we can expect that again.

"They just don't seem capable of planning anything right and the people who know the area are the last to know what's going on.

"It's great to have the tip back but it's not been well thought out at all. It's absolutely appalling. We used to have people who lived in the borough and knew the area and the roads but these officers are an absolute joke."