Woodbridge Town Council press release - Objection to A12 improvement plans

Press release

Woodbridge Town Council, in its response to Suffolk County Council’s consultation on its plans to upgrade the A12, has issued a letter of objection on multiple grounds.

In particular:

           •           the safety of pedestrians crossing the A12 has not been adequately considered;

•           the redesign of the Grundisburgh roundabout raises significant safety concerns, and fails in particular to analyse road use at the time of school drop off and collection; and

•           no mention of traffic management during the roadworks has been made in order to mitigate gridlock in Woodbridge.

Cllr Nigel Phipps, the Mayor of Woodbridge, fully supports the objective of upgrading the A12, but makes two pleas.

•           First, the A12 upgrade around Woodbridge must make the road safer for all users, and particularly for school age students given the location of many of our schools near to the A12. The current plans fail to give sufficient attention to this priority.

•           Second, while we cannot re-write the past, it is almost beyond belief that the beginning of the work to upgrade the A12 will be happening just as construction work on all the nationally significant infrastructure projects in East Suffolk, including Sizewell C, will be reaching a peak. More attention needs to be paid to mitigating the impact on the lives of our residents and the economic impact on the region.

It is in this context that Cllr Phipps has joined our MP, Jenny Riddell-Carpenter, in launching a campaign to increase the frequency of trains on the East Suffolk line. In light of the above, Cllr Phipps  asks that the increase in train frequency be undertaken as a matter of urgency.