COUNCILLOR Butland’s claim that the Government’s provisional offer of £272million to reroute the A12 at Marks Tey is good news for the proposed garden communities must not go unchallenged.

Both West Tey and West of Braintree garden communities rely almost entirely on the alleviation of congestion on the A120 rather than the A12 and cannot proceed in earnest until the A120 is re-aligned between Braintree and Kelvedon.

Only funding for the A120 planning stage is sanctioned so far. Government willingness to underwrite construction costs must now be fading rapidly as such projects become increasingly unaffordable in a post-pandemic economic climate.

Just in case a forthcoming recession is in doubt, some estimates predict the UK economy is on course to shrink by 15 per cent in the second quarter of 2020 - a collapse surpassing even that of the Great Depression.

If anything good can emerge from our current woes, perhaps it will be that we recalibrate our values and decide public health is more worthy of investment than grandiose garden communities and road schemes.

Ted Gittins

High Street, Cavendish