21/08/2026
Dear resident,
As we're sure you know Cadent Gas has been doing major infrastructure works around the village, and this maintenance will continue into early October.
Unfortunately the planners who arranged these works did not contact the Parish Council and it seems Essex Highways allowed it to go ahead with minimal local knowledge - hence the many problems since. Until this week the Parish Council has received less direct communication than many residents.
The biggest issue since Church Road has been shut this week, has been the works site on Harvest Way, which was poorly located on a small residential road and effectively created a blind corner, which half the village must drive past just to leave their homes.
The half an hour traffic jams and potential gridlock of Colchester Road demanded an urgent solution.
Unfortunately the usual permits for Cadent to relocate the site to another road would take some days to arrange meaning the problem may not be resolved until after the school year starts which would mean an unacceptable level of disruption and safety issues.
The Parish Council stepped in to offer local knowledge and contacts to figure out the best alternative possible.
Despite exploring numerous other locations around the village, criteria such as safe access for the HGVs to move the shipping containers, and no trees or cables overhead to allow for crane clearance means there’s very limited options within the village.
If a suitable site wasn’t found it could delay works significantly meaning the traffic lights and road closures could extend beyond what is planned.
Unfortunately the Parish Council doesn’t directly own much land to offer an alternative. However, working closely with the excellent team building the new community centre, we have arranged for the Cadent compound to be moved through our building site onto the adjoining Charity Field.
Because it uses only Parish Council owned land this was the only viable option to get the other site cleared this week and allow the road works to continue without delay.
Cadent have moved their containers onto the field and will be adding some fencing to form a small compound. This is primarily a welfare unit required by health and safety, along with some secure storage in another shipping container.
The site will only be used during the workday, and while we understand it may be a temporary eyesore there shouldn't be any other impact – it’s far better on the field than the alternative roads around the village it may have been moved to where we may not have had any say in the matter.
We've ensured it's set back from the field property boundaries to have minimal impact on neighbours - who should be receiving more information next week including contact details for someone responsible for the area at Cadent. If there are any serious problems please let the Parish Council know.
The compound won't be in use until Monday and we expect it to be there around 4-5 weeks. After this time it will have to be removed as we don’t want any vehicles getting stuck on the field in wet autumn conditions.
On that topic, we appreciate your patience with the urgent ground works last week, a land drain was installed which alongside other landscaping should prevent any future flooding issues.
Cadent have committed to reinstating the field to a better condition when they leave, and we are in discussions about how they can support us in planting trees and hedges on Charity Field to contribute to the community in the long term.
We will be in touch with local residents in the coming months to get their input on the landscaping plans for Charity Field that will take place over the next year.
While we understand the situation can be frustrating for everyone around the village, we have to thank the Cadent team who have recognised there is a serious problem and is now working hard alongside the Parish Council to find the best resolution possible.
Sadly, we have to reiterate the people you see working around the village are not responsible for this situation, they’re just trying to do their jobs as efficiently as possible to finish the project.
Thank you for your understanding.
Elmstead Parish Council.
