Chelmsford City Council’s proposal to allocate Hammonds Farm as a Strategic Growth Site for 3,000 homes and 2 major business parks may look neat in a spreadsheet — but on the ground, it spells transport chaos.

This article lays out why the assumptions underpinning the Local Plan’s transport strategy are deeply flawed, and why the burden will fall squarely on surrounding communities like Sandon, Little Baddow, Danbury, and Boreham.

A Fragile Road Network Already Under Pressure

Hammonds Farm sits between two of the region’s most heavily trafficked corridors — the A12 and A414. The A12 Junction 18 is already operating at or near capacity, and key local routes like Maldon Road, Molrams Lane, and Hammonds Road are routinely congested at peak hours.

Villages such as Sandon and Danbury are experiencing rising through-traffic, with narrow roads, poor visibility, and minimal pedestrian infrastructure. Adding thousands more vehicles to this fragile network is not a manageable risk — it’s a recipe for gridlock and danger.

3,000 Homes = 6,000+ Vehicles + Employment Traffic

Even conservative estimates suggest over 6,000 cars based at Hammonds Farm (two per household is typical in rural areas), and that figure doesn’t include the 2 employment site — 2 x 43,000m² of floorspace that could hostup to 2,000 commuting staff, service vehicles, and logistics traffic.

Daily vehicle movements could exceed 12,000 trips, based on standard trip generation figures. These trips will funnel through residential roads, rural lanes, and overloaded junctions that were never designed for this scale of development.

A12 Access: Promises Without Proof

The Council’s strategy relies heavily on vague references to future ‘strategic infrastructure improvements’ — particularly upgrades to the A12 and a potential new junction.

But here’s the reality:

• National Highways has not approved any A12 access solution for Hammonds Farm
• There is no binding funding commitment
• Delivery is uncertain, uncosted, and unfunded
• Developers have not committed to funding such infrastructure

In the absence of a confirmed A12 access plan, all traffic would be forced onto local roads, placing unbearable strain on Sandon, Danbury, Little Baddow and Boreham, and connecting routes.

The Myth of the 60% Modal Shift

One of the most misleading claims in Chelmsford City Council’s Local Plan is that 60% of all trips from Hammonds Farm will be made via sustainable transport — walking, cycling, or public transport.

While a new station at Beaulieu Park is indeed nearing completion, and the Plan refers to future cycleways and bus improvements, these are largely aspirational and entirely untested at the scale proposed.

In reality:

• The new station is not within walking distance of Hammonds Farm and lacks a direct, high-frequency link from the site.
• Proposed cycle routes remain conceptual, with no clear timetable, route detail, or guaranteed delivery.
• The development is rural and isolated, bordered by the A12 and open countryside, with no existing infrastructure to support walking or cycling to key destinations.
• There is no firm commitment from commercial bus operators to serve the site viably.

As the Walsingham Planning report points out, Chelmsford already struggles to achieve its existing modal shift targets — even in far more urban locations. Applying a 60% modal shift to a new settlement of this nature is not just optimistic — it is entirely unsound.

The likely outcome? A car-dependent community, bringing with it increased congestion, carbon emissions, and air pollution — the very opposite of Chelmsford’s stated environmental goals.

The Forgotten Landscape: The Chelmer Valley

Once again, the Chelmer Valley — one of the district’s most sensitive and scenic corridors — is overlooked. The plan includes a new access road and bridge cutting across the river and green corridor, introducing:

• Noise, movement, and emissions
• Disruption to walkers, cyclists, and wildlife
• Urbanisation of a historic and tranquil setting

This road would form a new conduit for vehicle movements — not just to the new homes, but for industrial traffic headed to and from the employment sites.

Impact on Villages and School Routes

Without strategic infrastructure, local traffic will inevitably flood:

• Molrams Lane, past the entrance to The Sandon School
• Hammonds Road, a rural lane with no pavement or safe crossing
• Sandon village centre, already under traffic strain
• Routes through Little Baddow and Danbury, where rural roads double as school and commuter routes
• Boreham interchange and Boreham itself would become completely clogged

These are not safe places to carry thousands of additional vehicle movements per day. Children walking to school, elderly residents, and cyclists will be put at risk. And no meaningful assessment of these routes has been included in the Local Plan evidence base.

The Evidence Just Isn’t There

Chelmsford City Council’s Transport Impact Appraisal presents an incomplete and deeply flawed picture of how the proposed development at Hammonds Farm will affect local roads and communities.

• It fails to assess key local junctions — including Molrams Lane, Sandon, the A414, Maldon Road, the Boreham Interchange, and Little Baddow Road — all of which are already under pressure.
• It ignores cumulative traffic impacts from other major growth areas and general background growth across the district.
• And, most significantly, it relies on an unsubstantiated claim that a 60% modal shift has been achieved at Beaulieu — a figure used to justify similarly unrealistic expectations for Hammonds Farm.

Yet no independent evidence has ever been published to support this figure. Where these numbers have come from remains entirely unclear.

Residents know the truth. Anyone who has driven through Beaulieu — at virtually any time of day — will have experienced frequent congestion and a landscape that remains heavily car-dependent. Public transport is limited, cycle use is minimal, and active travel is not the norm.

To suggest that Hammonds Farm — a rural, disconnected greenfield site — will somehow exceed Beaulieu in delivering sustainable travel behaviour is not just implausible, it is deeply misleading.

The result is a traffic model that fails to reflect reality — and fails to reassure the communities who already endure the consequences of unchecked growth. It does not provide the robust evidence required for sound plan-making, nor does it justify the scale of development proposed.

Conclusion

Hammonds Farm is not supported by a credible transport strategy. It is being promoted on the basis of hope, not evidence — with fantasy assumptions about sustainable travel, and no guarantees on road upgrades or funding.

This is not strategic growth. It is poorly planned overdevelopment, which threatens to overwhelm our roads, damage village life, and put vulnerable road users at risk.

Until and unless infrastructure is fully funded and delivered first, Hammonds Farm must be removed from the Local Plan — before transport chaos becomes a planning disaster.

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