The Fairglen Interchange Rayleigh junction sits at the meeting point of the A127 and A130 — and for years it’s been a symbol of broken promises from Essex County Council’s Conservative administration.
Planning permission was granted in December 2019. The compulsory purchase order was confirmed in July 2023. In February 2025, the Department for Transport confirmed a £15m funding contribution, alongside £38m from ECC and £6.2m from SELEP. At that point, residents were told construction would begin shortly.
It hasn’t. Construction has now been pushed back to 2030 at the earliest. Worse, the funding needed to actually build it beyond that date isn’t confirmed. ECC approved £9m in its February 2026 capital programme — but that’s for land acquisition and preparatory work only, not construction. A fresh application to the DfT will be needed, and the 2025 Spending Review has already concluded.
The reason given for the delay is a conflict with A130 PFI maintenance works, which run until 2030 under the County Route contract. ECC says running both programmes simultaneously would create unacceptable risks. That may be true, but this is a contractual constraint ECC has known about for years. The question residents are right to ask is why it took this long to say so openly.
Reform UK took control of Essex County Council following the May 2026 elections. I’ve written to the new Leader, Cllr Peter Harris, asking him to urgently review the scheme. You can read my letter in full here. Specifically, I’ve asked whether early handback negotiations with County Route have genuinely been exhausted, whether the £9m preparatory budget is being actively spent, and whether ECC will make a prompt DfT funding application before this spending cycle closes.
Rayleigh residents have waited long enough. I’ll be pushing for answers and publishing updates here as they come.
