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The impacts are already being felt
Epping District is already experiencing significant pressure on its infrastructure, road network, wildlife and essential services. Severe traffic congestion and gridlock are regular occurrences, not isolated incidents, at the roads around our schools and shops, and at the roundabouts and junctions to our motorways, main roads and stations. Our rail and bus services are over subscribed and inadequate. These conditions exist now, before approved green belt developments have been built and occupied. Developers are looking to build cumulatively several thousand additional homes above the quota agreed in the EFDC Local Plan.
This raises serious concerns about whether further development - particularly on green belt land - can be accommodated in a way that is sustainable, resilient, or compliant with planning policy.
Emergency response vehicles delayed by congestion cost lives
Traffic and highway capacity
Traffic and highway capacity
Traffic congestion in Epping District is no longer confined to traditional peak commuting hours. Gridlock now occurs frequently outside peak periods, including during weekdays throughout the day and at weekends.
This pattern indicates underlying network stress rather than short-term demand spikes. Congestion affects:
Routine local journeys, not just commuter traffic
Access to town centres, schools, healthcare, and other essential services
The reliability of public transport and emergency vehicle access
Narrow rural lanes and country roads are increasingly used as informal diversion routes, despite being unsuitable for sustained or high traffic volumes. In several locations, road surfaces are visibly deteriorating and subsiding under increased use.
Where congestion is already present across much of the day and week, the road network has little resilience to absorb additional traffic arising from new development.
Traffic regularly mounts pavements outside Ivy Chimneys primary school. One of many congested areas with high pollution levels.
Pedestrian safety and 'severance'
Pedestrian safety and 'severance'
High traffic volumes and persistent congestion have created highway safety and severance issues (being cut off). Simply crossing many of Epping District’s roads is more difficult and dangerous each day.
There is widespread concern about:
Children walking to and from school
Residents accessing shops, services, and public transport on foot
The risk of collisions involving pedestrians and cyclists; and wildlife and vehicles
Where roads act as barriers rather than connectors, communities become severed and everyday journeys are discouraged. This undermines objectives for sustainable travel and raises serious safety considerations that must be addressed.
No more capacity nor extra TFL funds available to end Central Line failings can take the pressure off local roads
Cumulative and network-wide impact
Cumulative and network-wide impact
Despite these conditions, transport assessments submitted with planning applications often rely on limited peak-hour modelling at selected junctions often during holiday periods. This approach risks understating:
The duration and frequency of congestion
Highway safety implications arising from sustained traffic levels
The cumulative impact of multiple developments across the wider network
Assessing proposals in isolation fails to reflect how the highway network is functioning in practice.
Public services and utilities cannot meet existing demand
Compromised access to essential services and utilities
Compromised access to essential services and utilities
Healthcare and education provision in Epping District is already under strain. GP surgeries and dental services are oversubscribed, and schools face increasing pressure on places, staffing, and resources.
Where development proposals rely on future mitigation or infrastructure provision, there is often uncertainty around delivery, timing, and funding. This creates a real risk that additional development will worsen capacity shortfalls rather than resolve them.
Chronic water supply issues and a drainage network that regularly fails during heavy rain are clear indicators that the district’s environmental resilience is already compromised.
Higher frequency and severity of floods causes authorities to increase road closures
Flooding, drainage, and road condition
Flooding, drainage, and road condition
Flooding on local roads and low-lying areas has become more frequent, disrupting travel and accelerating road damage. Surface water flooding affects both main routes and smaller lanes, reducing network reliability and increasing maintenance pressures.
Climate change is expected to intensify rainfall events, making existing drainage constraints more severe. Any further increase in development or traffic must be assessed against current and worsening conditions, not historic assumptions.
We need to protect wildlife and our environment
The green belt context
The green belt context
Green belt policy exists to prevent incremental harm that, taken together, fundamentally alters the character and sustainability of an area. The conditions already present in Epping District demonstrate that infrastructure capacity, highway safety, and environmental resilience are under significant strain.
Releasing green belt land where these pressures already exist raises serious concerns about long-term sustainability and compliance with national and local planning policy.
Keep Epping District Green believes that:
Keep Epping District Green believes that:
Existing congestion, highway safety risks, flooding, and service pressures must be properly acknowledged
Pedestrian safety and community severance are material planning considerations
Cumulative impacts must be assessed honestly and at an appropriate geographic scale
Development proposals must reflect how infrastructure is functioning now, not how it is assumed to function under idealised models
Green belt land should not be stripped where current conditions already demonstrate unsustainable pressure
KEDG wants to ensure that planning decisions are grounded in observable reality and supported by independent professional evidence.
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