THE A127 should be upgraded and designated as a trunk road using additional funds allocated to the south east following the demise of the HS2 rail scheme, a councillor says.

Last week the Government confirmed it would ditch the northern stretch of a planned high-speed railway line.

Instead, a total of £36 billion in savings from HS2 will be reinvested in hundreds of transport projects across the country.

Of this, £6.5billion will be invested in the south east.

A document laying out some of the plans includes a brief mention of improvements to the A127, which could see junctions widened like the Progress Road and Bell junctions schemes as well as work to improve the Fairglen interchange.

Kevin Buck, Southend’s councillor for highways, transport and parking, has said the funding could be used to upgrade the A127 to a trunk road.

He said: “The only thing that I’m aware of is that there have been aspirations from many of us to at least upgrade the A127 to trunk status which makes it a more major road. Our MPs, myself and others have been pushing for some form of investment in the A127 to try and improve its connectivity to Southend.

“It would help with accessibility in Southend. It should ease some of the congestion on the A127 itself and make it easier to access Southend by road.

“Designating it as a trunk road is a fairly straightforward process in itself but then once it is designated as a trunk road it requires certain elements of it to be upgraded such as junction improvements.”

A proposed short-term scheme has been developed to increase the capacity of the A127 and A130 Fairglen Interchange, reduce journey times, address existing safety concerns and improve pedestrian and cycling connectivity.

Daniel Cowan, leader of Southend’s Labour Group, said: “If money does come into Southend for the A127 I think what we need to look at is a rationalisation of the A127.

"What we really need is to have another look at Cuckoo Corner I appreciate that was only reviewed in the last decade or so but the improvements there haven’t made a difference and we need to ensure the junction where it comes off Priory Crescent is looked at again. We also need to look again at Kent Elms because the current situation of three lanes going down into two we know it’s a problem so if we have money, that’s where we need to put it.”