Affinity Water has moved its Garnetts works to about 23 November, with access through Trinity Green, days after a notice said no diversion was available.
Affinity Water has rewritten its plans for Garnetts in Takeley a week before the road was due to close: the main works in the cul-de-sac now start around 23 November rather than 2 November, and residents’ cars would leave through Bellway Homes’ Trinity Green development, a route the company says will be open 24 hours a day.
The revised plan arrived in a letter to residents on Monday 26 October. Four days earlier, Essex County Council’s legal notice for the original 47-day closure, printed in the Dunmow Broadcast on 22 October, ended with the line: “No diversion route is available.”
Morgan Hunting, the Garnetts resident who has kept us informed since our first report on 11 October and our follow-up on 19 October, says the change brings “greater clarity” but leaves “significant questions” about “the proposed alternative route, its safety, authorisation and practical operation.”
What the new letter says
Affinity Water’s letter of 26 October, which residents have now sent us, opens: “These works are necessary to bring water to the new Bellways development site.” It says:
- Parsonage Road: multi-way temporary traffic lights from Monday 9 November, “for approximately 3 weeks”, so the works can be done safely.
- Garnetts: “Work is planned to begin between Monday 23rd November and Friday 18th December”, with a break over Christmas and New Year. The road closure will be in place Monday to Friday between 8am and 4pm.
- Getting in and out: the letter calls it a “diversion route”. Residents should go in from the bottom of Garnetts, outside No. 23, through the new development and out onto Mill Race Drive. The company says the route “will be available 24hrs a day, 7 days a week” during the work. If it is working directly outside a home, “it may take a short while” to provide access, and it asks residents to “minimise” trips in and out during the closure hours.
- January: “We are likely to then return” in January “for approx. 6 weeks to complete the work along Garnetts.”
Corrected 26 October: we first reported, from residents’ summary of the letter, that working in Garnetts would be limited to 8am to 4pm on weekdays and that the length of the January works had not been given. The letter itself says 8am to 4pm on weekdays are the road closure hours, and that the January works should take about six weeks.
“No diversion route is available”
The notice in the Dunmow Broadcast is Essex County Council’s (Garnetts, Takeley) (Temporary Prohibition of Traffic) Order 2026, made under section 14(1) of the Road Traffic Regulation Act 1984. It closes Garnetts “from its junction with Parsonage Road to its end a distance of approximately 270m”, starting on 2 November “for 47 days, or where stated on a valid permit (MX06162953PW-GARNETTS - Affinity Water)”, for “new connection works”.
The order came into effect on 15 October and “may continue in force for 18 months or until the works have been completed, whichever is the earlier”. It also says the dates “may vary for these works with appropriate signs showing and/or displayed on one.network”, which is how a closure can move without a new order.
Affinity Water’s own letter four days later uses the word: residents “should use the diversion route through the new development site”, which it says it arranged with Bellway.
Hunting does not claim the two documents contradict each other in law. “I appreciate that a formal highway diversion and temporary access over private development land may be legally distinct,” the resident writes. “Nevertheless, this raises questions about when the alternative arrangements were assessed, who approved them and what safeguards will apply.”
A route through a building site
The new way out runs through a development that is still being built. The residents’ briefing says a resident who has walked the route “describes it as narrow and has witnessed construction lorries using the development area”.
“I am not suggesting that the route has been established to be unsafe,” Hunting writes. “Rather, residents are seeking the relevant assessments, approvals and written operational arrangements so that its suitability can be properly understood.”
Residents want confirmation that the route has been checked for emergency vehicles, construction traffic and everyday use. The briefing says correspondence involving Essex Police and Essex County Council dated 13 October “relayed requirements concerning emergency access, residential access and road closure restrictions”, and residents are asking whether the new arrangements have been tested against them.
“Not a consultation”
The county councillor for Takeley has also weighed in. Geoff Bagnall, elected to Essex County Council for the Takeley division in May, wrote in an email on 26 October to Richard Ridley, a Garnetts resident and Takeley parish councillor:
“Knocking on doors advising what they intend to do is not a consultation.”
Ridley has agreed to the quote being published, Hunting says.
Affinity Water’s first letter to residents, dated 30 September and sent under works number DS0062953, called its plan “early consultation prior to work starting”. It said the dates “have not been finalised”, that work was expected “from Monday 2nd November, with a duration of around 6 weeks”, and that its team would be “door knocking at properties in the area” on Wednesday 7 October between 1pm and 4pm to “hear from you about any concerns, access requirements or other matters”. “Your feedback is important to us,” it said, “and will help us better understand the potential impact on the local community.”
The letter described the job as “essential water network work that will strengthen and future-proof the local water supply”. On 19 October the company told Hunting in writing that the work is to provide a water connection to a new housing development, and on 23 October it referred to “our legal obligation to provide the development with a water supply”. Asked on 26 October whether the scheme was mainly a replacement of existing pipes, Affinity Water replied the same afternoon: “The proposed new water main is intended to supply the new housing development in Takeley. These are development connection works, rather than a standalone mains replacement programme.”
The 26 October letter says the company “visited residents in Garnetts on Wednesday 7th October” and has “taken your feedback on board and have tried to address as many concerns as possible”. Hunting’s reply to Affinity Water that day was blunt: “Residents have not agreed to these arrangements. The delivery of letters and verbal explanations should not be represented as residents’ agreement or acceptance.” Residents now want to know what feedback was recorded on 7 October, how it was weighed and whether it shaped the revised plan. They are also asking who commissioned and paid for the works, and how responsibility is split between Affinity Water, Bellway Homes and Essex County Council. The briefing adds: “No finding of improper conduct has been established.”
“Before construction has begun”
The briefing says residents have described “anxiety, frustration and difficulty planning everyday activities during weeks of changing information about access to their homes”, and that “these concerns have arisen before the main Garnetts works have even commenced”. Residents also question whether enough thought has gone to people who depend on reliable vehicle access “because of serious illness, disability, mobility limitations or essential medical appointments”.
Its central question: “How did residents of a single-access residential cul-de-sac reach the final week before an originally advertised major closure without clear, documented answers about the arrangements governing access to their homes?”
“Residents are not seeking to prevent essential infrastructure improvements simply because construction may be inconvenient,” it says. “They are seeking transparent decision-making, meaningful consultation, clear responsibility and safe, practical access arrangements.”
Waiting for answers
The plan may change again. In the same 26 October email, Affinity Water said it was now working towards starting on Parsonage Road on 9 November, “followed by phased work within Garnetts”, and that “following changes to the traffic arrangements discussed on site, the Garnetts resident letter is being revised before distribution. We expect to deliver updated letters later this week.”
At 4.43pm the same day Affinity Water sent residents a text message. “We met residents and the highways authority at Garnetts today to review the plans and minimise disruption,” it said. “We’ve arranged a diversion to maintain vehicle access in and out of Garnetts.” It promised revised letters “later this week, giving you advance written notice of the planned road closures, timings and access arrangements”, and said: “We currently plan to start on Parsonage Road on 9 November, then work through Garnetts in phases.”
Hunting sent written questions to Affinity Water, Essex County Council Highways and Bellway Homes on 26 October. Essex Highways’ temporary traffic orders team acknowledged the enquiry and said it would be passed on; Bellway’s automatic reply promised a response within three working days. Hunting says “Affinity Water, Essex County Council and Bellway Homes should each have the opportunity to explain their positions.” We will report what they say.
Hunting also tells us that the parliamentary office of Kemi Badenoch, MP for North West Essex, has replied to residents about the closures, saying it is monitoring the situation and waiting for further information from Essex County Council.
What it means for you
- If you live in Garnetts, the full closure from Monday 2 November is no longer the plan in Affinity Water’s latest letter: the main works in the road are now due from about 23 November to 18 December, with the road shut on weekdays between 8am and 4pm and access through Trinity Green to Mill Race Drive at all times. Affinity Water expects to come back in January for about six weeks, and says another letter is on its way this week. Quote works number DS0062953 to Affinity Water and permit MX06162953PW to Essex Highways.
- If you need guaranteed access for a carer, a medical appointment or a mobility vehicle, the 26 October letter asks residents to contact the liaison officer named on it in advance, with your name, full address, the dates and times you need access and a brief description of your household’s needs. Affinity Water’s 30 September letter also points to its free Priority Services Register for customers who are clinically vulnerable or have additional health needs.
- If you drive on Parsonage Road, expect multi-way temporary lights from about 9 November for around three weeks.
For other closures around the area, see our Bishop’s Stortford roadworks and travel page.
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