THOUSANDS of residents have signed a petition calling on the Government to fund urgent work on the A120.

The Harwich and Manningtree Standard launched a campaign last summer to put pressure on the Government to fund work to dual the trunk road from Hare Green to Harwich.

There is an agreement in place for the stretch of the A120 to be dualled with funding from Hutchison Ports as part of planning permission for a container port at Bathside Bay, Harwich.

But this project has been delayed for years leaving the road to deteriorate.

Harwich councillor Ivan Henderson, said: “We’ve got more than 2,000 signatures for the petition, which is great.

“It shows drivers really want improvements to the A120 and are now demanding that urgent action is taken to improve this important road.

“It’s not acceptable that drivers are having to foot the bill for damage to their cars and that the main road in and out of Harwich, the home of an international port, is in such a poor state of repair and is only a single carriageway.

“Drivers and Harwich deserve better.”

The petition says with an ever increasing population and more lorries using Harwich International Port the road is under strain.

It added: “It is also in need of complete relaying. The road should be dualled now rather than relaying it as a single carriageway.”

Harwich councillor John Brown has been calling for improvements on the road for a decade and believes a dual carriageway will bring jobs to the town.

He said: “That road was laid 40 or 50 years ago and they used all different concretes to work out what would be the best to dual that road with. It was a test road.

“It’s come to the end of it’s lifespan now and the concrete is lifting up.

“There is only one way to repair that road now and that is to dig it all up.

“Dualling it at that point would be brilliant, it really needs to be dualled.

“Business would come to the town and it would create jobs.”

Mr Brown added: “It’s a main road from Europe, you can follow the route to Liverpool and it meets with the docks in Ireland - why don’t we have money for it?”

Both online and paper petitions have collected 2,484 signatures, which Harwich and North Essex MP Bernard Jenkin has agreed to take to the Minister for Transport.

n For a full list of the candidates standing in the Tendring Council election, click here.

Candidates standing for Harwich Town Council in the All Saints Ward are: Maria Fowler (Lab) and Jo Henderson(Lab), Tanya Ferguson (Con), Margaret Saunders(Lab), Robert Shephard (Lab), David Smith (Lab) and Alan Todd (Lab).

The Harwich and Kingsway ward are: Ivan Henderson (Lab), Darrell Howard (Con), Charlie Powell (Lab), Geoff Smith (Lab).

The Dovercourt Bay ward are: Garry Calver (Lab), Barry Brown (Con), Dave McLeod (Lab).