A proposal to dig a tunnel under the Railway Walk in Hadleigh has been scrapped after a petition opposing the idea gained more than 400 signatures in just 24 hours.
The idea to link Cranworth Road and Glanville Road was among proposals floated at a meeting at the town’s Guildhall on December 12 as a way of combating long-running traffic problems on Benton Street.
Mick Fraser, county councillor for Hadleigh, said the proposal was one of many ideas put forward after a residents survey was conducted along with video surveillance of the busy street.
He said: “What has been going on throughout this year is I have instructed some officers from highways to look at the whole issue.
“The main problem on the road is encroachment from vehicles onto the pavements.
“There are pinch points where cars were driving over the pavement 100 times a day.
“What the officers did was to give a holistic view and look at the issue from all angles.
“Some of the options were quite straight forward and some were quite broad, thinking outside the box, and that included linking Cranworth and Glanville Roads by cutting a tunnel through the Railway Walk.
“There were obviously objections to the proposal because the Railway Walk is a bit of a gem for the town
“I often cycle and run down there myself.
“The idea was there just to show we have given it a lot of thought and looked at the issue from different angles.”
Mr Fraser said he had now withdrawn the idea as it would not have been possible to complete within his locality budget.
He added what the town really needed was a new road linking the town south towards the A12.
Steve Allman, who started the petition, said he was pleased to hear the idea was no longer being considered.
“As soon as people saw the idea they thought ‘you are having a laugh’”, he said.
“It was such a wacky idea I thought lets petition it now and get it off the table.
“If is not a serious option why not get it off the table straight away.
“It was never, never going to happen but the problem I have is that sometimes the most ridiculous ideas somehow get through.”
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