Hope on two wheels: plan to turn section of A12 into cycle park

Campaigners are pushing for a redundant 2-mile stretch of dual carriageway in Essex to become a country park with cycling facilities

There has been traffic here for millennia, from the Roman legionaries who marched from Londinium to Camulodunum to the speedsters who now reportedly race against police cars at night. But part of the A12 in north-east Essex may finally find some peace if plans to transform a 2-mile stretch into a country park come to fruition.

Work is due to start in 2027 on a bypass between the villages of Marks Tey and Kelvedon, west of Colchester, creating a six-lane road linking Ipswich and Harwich to London. Campaigners say the old four-lane road should be rewilded, as happened with a segment of the A2 near Gravesend, which became a Cyclopark in 2012. That site is now used by Olympic gold medallists Beth Shriever - also BMX world champion - and mountain biker Tom Pidcock.