Investigation set to be launched into handling of Sadlers Farm (From Basildon Recorder)

Why all the moaning, again! It seems it's what Essex thrives on. Yes, it's not fully complete but it makes for a much better trip to and from London. Most of the pain is over.

mys842 wrote:
Why all the moaning, again! It seems it's what Essex thrives on. Yes, it's not fully complete but it makes for a much better trip to and from London. Most of the pain is over.

63 million!! and 11 months behind schedule. I cant think of why anyone would be moaning......?

It should be investigated by an independent organisation, other wise EEC findings will always be seen as a cover up.

jayman wrote:

mys842 wrote: Why all the moaning, again! It seems it's what Essex thrives on. Yes, it's not fully complete but it makes for a much better trip to and from London. Most of the pain is over.

63 million!! and 11 months behind schedule. I cant think of why anyone would be moaning......?

but who really cares. the road works now, people can get where they want to go! i pay tax which is spent on thousands of wasteful projects across the country. some are delivered on time, some aren't.

there were over-zealous project managers, as always, trying to rush a project that should have taken longer, in order to make it for the olympics.

They should have employed the company working at Corringham on A13, they are doing a great job and seem well organised. Before they started they set out what they were going to do and were very honest and said that there were/are going to be delays and disruption etc....shame Birse couldnt do the same. And also the council shouldnt come away unscathed either, feeding us a load of bull**** instead of just being honest when they realised it was never going to be finished on time....us folk could clearly see it wasnt going to be finished on time yet they kept telling us it would be....we dont like liars!

But on another note, the whole thing works quite well save a few small teething issues, i come to Benfleet via A127/A130 and my journey now only takes 15minutes instead of the hour it used to

As a business owner located on the Sadlers Farm Light Industrial Estate, I feel I have every right to moan about how this has been handled from day one. Even now, I am looking out of my shop at unfinished fences, mud and dirt everywhere, contractor's vehicles blocking access to and from the yard, and there is a dangerous seven metre drop from our car park to the new road cutting with only a few flimsy block-and-mesh fence panels to prevent someone going over the edge. This fence has been in this state for fourteen months now, how long does it take to put up a run of proper permanent fencing? It would also seem that a lot of the lanes remain coned off for little or no reason. I am still having to reassure some my customers that they will not be stuck in hours of tailbacks, and I dread to think exactly how much lost revenue I have suffered as a result of the works. I applaud the project's intentions but unfortunately the execution of work has been painfully slow, badly managed and with little or no consideration for the several small businesses who almost went to the wall because of these delays in completion. In fact, the gym, the farm shop and the tyre fitters all packed up and left because of the never-ending delays and worthless deadlines. To top it off, as a business owner directly affected by the project I am not entitled to any compensation due to lack of earnings because the access to the yard was kept open. I dispute this, as I don't see how two miles of traffic in every direction is keeping somewhere 'accessible'. I am glad it has made life easier for a lot of motorists, but for us it has left us worse off than when we first started the business.

How come the roadworks disappeared magically around the time of the Olympics at Hadleigh Farm and reappeared within a week afterwards? Not a cone was to be seen during that weekend.... odd eh?

Eugene Speed wrote:
As a business owner located on the Sadlers Farm Light Industrial Estate, I feel I have every right to moan about how this has been handled from day one. Even now, I am looking out of my shop at unfinished fences, mud and dirt everywhere, contractor's vehicles blocking access to and from the yard, and there is a dangerous seven metre drop from our car park to the new road cutting with only a few flimsy block-and-mesh fence panels to prevent someone going over the edge. This fence has been in this state for fourteen months now, how long does it take to put up a run of proper permanent fencing? It would also seem that a lot of the lanes remain coned off for little or no reason. I am still having to reassure some my customers that they will not be stuck in hours of tailbacks, and I dread to think exactly how much lost revenue I have suffered as a result of the works. I applaud the project's intentions but unfortunately the execution of work has been painfully slow, badly managed and with little or no consideration for the several small businesses who almost went to the wall because of these delays in completion. In fact, the gym, the farm shop and the tyre fitters all packed up and left because of the never-ending delays and worthless deadlines. To top it off, as a business owner directly affected by the project I am not entitled to any compensation due to lack of earnings because the access to the yard was kept open. I dispute this, as I don't see how two miles of traffic in every direction is keeping somewhere 'accessible'. I am glad it has made life easier for a lot of motorists, but for us it has left us worse off than when we first started the business.

To be fair, from your perspective you do have every right to moan. It's the road users who want all of the benefits but none of the pain that wind me up.

While I fully accept Eugene Speed's comments, as a driver who uses it to get from the A127 to Benfleet I like what they've done. The lanes clearly indicate where you should be and apart from the lack of flyover/underpass towards Canvey from Basildon, it appears to have been quite well thought out.

Investigation and conclussion is very quick and simple. . . . . . too many workers either standing around or sitting in trucks. Many people few working.

Bit like the council really !!

mys842 wrote:

Eugene Speed wrote:
As a business owner located on the Sadlers Farm Light Industrial Estate, I feel I have every right to moan about how this has been handled from day one. Even now, I am looking out of my shop at unfinished fences, mud and dirt everywhere, contractor's vehicles blocking access to and from the yard, and there is a dangerous seven metre drop from our car park to the new road cutting with only a few flimsy block-and-mesh fence panels to prevent someone going over the edge. This fence has been in this state for fourteen months now, how long does it take to put up a run of proper permanent fencing? It would also seem that a lot of the lanes remain coned off for little or no reason. I am still having to reassure some my customers that they will not be stuck in hours of tailbacks, and I dread to think exactly how much lost revenue I have suffered as a result of the works. I applaud the project's intentions but unfortunately the execution of work has been painfully slow, badly managed and with little or no consideration for the several small businesses who almost went to the wall because of these delays in completion. In fact, the gym, the farm shop and the tyre fitters all packed up and left because of the never-ending delays and worthless deadlines. To top it off, as a business owner directly affected by the project I am not entitled to any compensation due to lack of earnings because the access to the yard was kept open. I dispute this, as I don't see how two miles of traffic in every direction is keeping somewhere 'accessible'. I am glad it has made life easier for a lot of motorists, but for us it has left us worse off than when we first started the business.

To be fair, from your perspective you do have every right to moan. It's the road users who want all of the benefits but none of the pain that wind me up.

My friend I think I would be looking at the land compensation act 1973 as it was set up to deal with this type issue, because you have lost customers your company has basically de-valued, which this act caters for, its worth looking into. good luck, as for the staff, who I suspect have the same entitlement to holidays as any body else. So seeing that the compnay managed this project so badly , the result was having to pull (temp) out prior the olympics, so did the staff have to take holidays in this period, or were they paid, for both, effectivly having a six week holiday , as it was not the councils fault, at least the company should be footing the bill for the wages paid for the olympic layoff time, and how is it that the councils can put finacial penalties on small projects, but not this one, I bet the person runninig the comming investigation is a mate in the council that has just been promoted to spend even more public money.

There should be an investigation as to who signed off the dangerously short slip road from Canvey way onto the A13 towards Pitsea.

I have family members who live at Tarpots.
They were able to have a look at all these much vaunted plans before any work started. Everybody who looked at them all agreed that the plans were badly thought out, messy and would cause untold problems.
However, The Council in their infinite wisdom decided they knew better, and carried on regardless. Now we have found out about all the problems, overspend, mess and whilst some parts are admittedly better, Tarpots is still a nightmare.
I have lost count how many times that junction has been changed, altered and messed about with, and I am going back to the early sixties!
My Brother got to know several of the workmen at Tarpots (God alone knows they were there long enough!) and even they knew that the work was going to cost more and over run - they told him!
I wait for the next installment of "Tarpots Changing" with baited breath...........won
der what we will get next time!

"It should also be noted that Sadlers Farm is one of Essex’s largest transport infrastructure schemes in three decades, and we are pleased with the way it has been operating since last summer.”

The Essex CC Spokeswoman might be pleased but many local people are not. This has been a nightmare for local residents. Think you would have to go a long way to find another mess such as this has been and is still continuing. Road signage is absolutely appalling and confusing for locals as well as people who haven't been here before/or for a long time.

I wonder how many more cars I am going to encounter coming the wrong way round the new roundabout set up who think because they can turn right from A13 towards Canvey that it is still the old set up and continue to drive against oncoming traffic towards Benfleet.

My feelings are they could have constructed the underpass with minimal disturbance to the old roundabout system (i.e. left it as it was). The only alteration which needed to happen there was to have designated left hand filter roads to and from new A13.

If anybody is surprised that these works have over-run yet again their necks must be buried in the Sahara desert


.

lennyfy wrote:
There should be an investigation as to who signed off the dangerously short slip road from Canvey way onto the A13 towards Pitsea.

Agree entirely. Probably the same person who signed off the "filter" lane from the A127 at the roundabout to go towards Billericay/Barleylan
ds

spike99 wrote:
I have family members who live at Tarpots.
They were able to have a look at all these much vaunted plans before any work started. Everybody who looked at them all agreed that the plans were badly thought out, messy and would cause untold problems.
However, The Council in their infinite wisdom decided they knew better, and carried on regardless. Now we have found out about all the problems, overspend, mess and whilst some parts are admittedly better, Tarpots is still a nightmare.
I have lost count how many times that junction has been changed, altered and messed about with, and I am going back to the early sixties!
My Brother got to know several of the workmen at Tarpots (God alone knows they were there long enough!) and even they knew that the work was going to cost more and over run - they told him!
I wait for the next installment of "Tarpots Changing" with baited breath...........won

der what we will get next time!

Hopefully they will reinstate the right hand turn from A13 at Tarpots into Rushbottom Lane. Anybody coming from Hadleigh direction who wants to get to any of the housing, schools, doctors surgery, shops etc. has to turn right earlier into one of the side roads and then has to naviagate the extremely dangerous right hand turn from the junction Rushbottom Lane/Church Road into the further part of Rushbottom Lane. You have to turn right practically blind to oncoming traffic from Tarpots and in the meantime cars are nearly going into the back of the car/s waiting to turn right into Rushbottom Lane.
Another piece of idiocy where local residents comments in consultation period were NOT heard

They should also turn the traffic lights off on the roundabout at night.

It takes forever to get round and one stops two or three times when there is no traffic anywhere else.

Ivanna Goodhump wrote:
They should also turn the traffic lights off on the roundabout at night.

It takes forever to get round and one stops two or three times when there is no traffic anywhere else.

That is true of most roundabouts where the council think we need lights in order to use them!

I hope this investigation will also look at how ECC handled the development and the action or lack of action by certain councillors and other employees of ECC.

upset wrote:
It should be investigated by an independent organisation, other wise EEC findings will always be seen as a cover up.

I would have thought the Tory run ECC have wasted enough money already, spending more on an independent organisation to establish what a hash the Council have made of these improvements is not the answer.

whataday wrote:

spike99 wrote:
I have family members who live at Tarpots.
They were able to have a look at all these much vaunted plans before any work started. Everybody who looked at them all agreed that the plans were badly thought out, messy and would cause untold problems.
However, The Council in their infinite wisdom decided they knew better, and carried on regardless. Now we have found out about all the problems, overspend, mess and whilst some parts are admittedly better, Tarpots is still a nightmare.
I have lost count how many times that junction has been changed, altered and messed about with, and I am going back to the early sixties!
My Brother got to know several of the workmen at Tarpots (God alone knows they were there long enough!) and even they knew that the work was going to cost more and over run - they told him!
I wait for the next installment of "Tarpots Changing" with baited breath...........won


der what we will get next time!

Hopefully they will reinstate the right hand turn from A13 at Tarpots into Rushbottom Lane. Anybody coming from Hadleigh direction who wants to get to any of the housing, schools, doctors surgery, shops etc. has to turn right earlier into one of the side roads and then has to naviagate the extremely dangerous right hand turn from the junction Rushbottom Lane/Church Road into the further part of Rushbottom Lane. You have to turn right practically blind to oncoming traffic from Tarpots and in the meantime cars are nearly going into the back of the car/s waiting to turn right into Rushbottom Lane.
Another piece of idiocy where local residents comments in consultation period were NOT heard

Oh yes you were heard, but ignored and ECC just like Castle Point Council never will admit they are wrong.
Can I add to this list of things wrong with this project, the ridiculously short slip road from Canvey Way to A13.

whataday wrote:

spike99 wrote:
I have family members who live at Tarpots.
They were able to have a look at all these much vaunted plans before any work started. Everybody who looked at them all agreed that the plans were badly thought out, messy and would cause untold problems.
However, The Council in their infinite wisdom decided they knew better, and carried on regardless. Now we have found out about all the problems, overspend, mess and whilst some parts are admittedly better, Tarpots is still a nightmare.
I have lost count how many times that junction has been changed, altered and messed about with, and I am going back to the early sixties!
My Brother got to know several of the workmen at Tarpots (God alone knows they were there long enough!) and even they knew that the work was going to cost more and over run - they told him!
I wait for the next installment of "Tarpots Changing" with baited breath...........won


der what we will get next time!

Hopefully they will reinstate the right hand turn from A13 at Tarpots into Rushbottom Lane. Anybody coming from Hadleigh direction who wants to get to any of the housing, schools, doctors surgery, shops etc. has to turn right earlier into one of the side roads and then has to naviagate the extremely dangerous right hand turn from the junction Rushbottom Lane/Church Road into the further part of Rushbottom Lane. You have to turn right practically blind to oncoming traffic from Tarpots and in the meantime cars are nearly going into the back of the car/s waiting to turn right into Rushbottom Lane.
Another piece of idiocy where local residents comments in consultation period were NOT heard

Oh yes you were heard, but ignored and ECC just like Castle Point Council never will admit they are wrong.
Can I add to this list of things wrong with this project, the ridiculously short slip road from Canvey Way to A13.

Why would the ECC listen to local residents comments the road improvements were obviously not intended for our benefit in the first place.
We came last in the pecking order.

alsopuzzled wrote:
Why would the ECC listen to local residents comments the road improvements were obviously not intended for our benefit in the first place.
We came last in the pecking order.

You know that is so concise I had said it.

John T Pharro wrote:

alsopuzzled wrote:
Why would the ECC listen to local residents comments the road improvements were obviously not intended for our benefit in the first place.
We came last in the pecking order.

You know that is so concise I had said it.

Sorry should read "so concise WISH I had said it.

John T Pharro wrote:

John T Pharro wrote:

alsopuzzled wrote:
Why would the ECC listen to local residents comments the road improvements were obviously not intended for our benefit in the first place.
We came last in the pecking order.

You know that is so concise I had said it.

Sorry should read "so concise WISH I had said it.

You should calm down John before you write comments about ECC or CPBC don't get so excited about having a go!!