THE A127’s dangerous level of air pollution could lead to a congestion charge being imposed on the road, it has been revealed.

Basildon Council is discussing whether to implement “charge zones” along the road after a Government report advised them to lower air pollution levels by 2020.

Both Basildon Council and Rochford District Council carried out an air pollution study, which showed that on two stretches of the A127 - near the Fortune of War in Laindon and near to Rayleigh Weir - exceeded the national limit of 40 micrograms of nitrogen dioxide.

Basildon Council discussed the idea of implementing congestion charges at a meeting last night, where £110,000 in funding was requested for a joint study into the issue to take place.

With that money, a new monitoring station is expected to be set up at the Fortune of War, to carry out constant air quality monitoring.

Andrew Gordon, councillor for Lee Chapel North, has been critical of the idea, saying working class people in Basildon should not be “penalised” for using the A127.

He said: “If you speak to most people in Basildon, they would be pretty annoyed if there was a congestion charge put in place on the A127.

“There are problems with air pollution and we should take the environment very seriously but we should not penalise working class people for that, we should improve public transport.”

The government’s air quality plan has stated they aim for local authorities to reduce emissions on the country’s roads by 2020.

Mr Gordon added that the air pollution problem would not be solved even if Essex County Council, the highways authority, introduced a congestion charge.

He said more work needs to be done to improve public transport in Basildon and surrounding areas, to encourage people away from the A127.

Mr Gordon said: “The underlying issue in Basildon is that our public transport is ‘naff’.

“It takes hours to get to Brentwood or Chelmsford using public transport.”

The council have until March 31 to draw up a full plan on how to tackle the air pollution on the A127.

Mr Gordon added that he hopes the plans will not be dropped on residents if they are decided.

He said: “No decision has been made on this matter but these issues are my representations at the cabinet. The people it will hit the hardest is the people who are working every day to keep money coming in and a roof over their heads and that doesn’t seem right.”