Ipswich MP Tom Hunt has said a traffic calming measure is on "the way out" as a petition was launched by local residents.

The request by those living on Maryon Road to remove a chicane to Suffolk County Council has received the backing of over 140 residents since being launched a few days ago.

Petition starter Ben Hall, who lives on this road located in the Gainsborough area, explained that residents are blocked from getting out of their driveways by the constant build-up of traffic in the area.

The 44-year-old claims that the chicane acts as bottleneck delaying journeys to nearby Nacton Road, the vaccine centre at Gainsborough Sports Centre and Ipswich Academy.

"The traffic is backed up in the morning during rush hour and that makes it hard for everyone living on Maryon Road," Mr Hall, a delivery driver, added. "It would be really frustrating to wait on this."

%image(15113091, type="article-full", alt="Tom Hunt MP has said it will be "goodbye" to the chicane on Maryon Road, Ipswich")

MP Tom Hunt, spurred by what he heard on the doorstep during the May 2021 Local Election, has backed the destruction of the chicane after consulting local residents.

He said the majority of the over 400 residents he asked, who live in or near Maryon Road, want the chicane gone.

And he has already started the process with Suffolk county councillor for Gainsborough ward Liz Harsant to get rid of the traffic calming measure.

Mr Hunt said: "It has to be removed.

"It will be goodbye to the chicane. It's on its way out."

Suffolk County Council cabinet member for highway operations Paul West said he is waiting on "details" from officers and will work with fellow Conservative Liz Harsant to decide what to do next.

%image(15539546, type="article-full", alt="Suffolk county councillor Paul West")

Conservative politicians Mr West and Mr Hunt both said a lot of the money to fix this issue will have to come from the Gainsborough ward councillor's locality budget.

They also raised that Kim Clements, the previous Gainsborough Labour county councillor, did not use her £55,772.29 budget before she was replaced in the May Election and Labour had the chance to fix the issue then.

Martin Cook, Ipswich borough councillor for the area, has also said that Labour has long campaigned on this issue and Conservative councillors were not "immune".

Mr Cook said: "The strength of Ben’s petition is the clearest indication yet that local residents want to see the chicane removed.

"Time is running out to sort this before Maryon Road is resurfaced and there will be a ban on roadworks for two years afterwards.

"We need Suffolk County Council to step up and fix this quickly.”

A total of £1.3m of road improvement cash was left unspent by Suffolk county councillors.

To see the petition go here change.org/p/suffolk-county-council-remove-chicane-block-from-maryon-road-ipswich.