I note Councillor Ian Pritchard’s pride in Braintree Council’s endorsement of the Local Plan that could saddle North Essex with three vast new towns (Times, August 8).

I would have been a lot more impressed if he had, instead, expressed pride in Braintree Council’s adoption of a climate emergency and thought through the necessary actions to take account of that.

In the headlong rush to vote for the Local Plan in its current form – ignoring local opinion and the advice of the Planning Inspector – the North Essex Councils are also bidding for £226 million of taxpayers money to fund a damaging loop in the A12 around Marks Tey.

That bid is committing our local communities to further delays in the A12 and A120 improvements, costing everyone time and money and risking lives.

In addition, assuming the loop is only 4km, the 37,000 vehicles that use the A12 in each direction every day, will generate an additional 42 tonnes of CO2.

By my calculation, that’s a staggering 15,000 tonnes of CO2 a year.

Withdrawing the funding bid, saving the £226 million and getting on with the road improvements will improve air quality in Braintree, Witham and the whole area and will show that councillors are taking the climate emergency seriously.

Noel Mead

Coggeshall