'I live near Essex's most chaotic roundabout and I always take a 15 minute detour to avoid it'

While there are a few candidates for Essex's worst roundabout, I'm pretty sure you'll agree the infamous Brook Street Roundabout is absolutely the most chaotic. Fellow survivors of this abominable roundabout, where Essex's two busiest roads - the A12 and M25- converge near Brentwood- will know the pain and misery it brings to thousands of drivers daily.

On paper, the roundabout should be very convenient and a great way to get onto the A12 or M25—but in practice, navigating it is nothing short of a nightmare. I moved to Brentwood in 2016 and began driving in 2019. Even before I was in the driver's seat, my parents would complain about the roundabout and go out of their way to avoid it.

Imagine my luck then that my first driving test would require me to take this horrible roundabout, not in the middle of the day either, but smack bang in the middle of rush hour. Perhaps, unsurprisingly, I failed that test; because changing lanes on this intimidating roundabout is pretty much impossible at 5pm in the afternoon - especially for someone with learner plates and an examiner watching like a hawk.

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Ever since that fateful day, I have hated Brook Street Roundabout, and I know I am not the only one. Locals are constantly complaining about the traffic light failures and the endless roadworks that make this miserable excuse for a roundabout even worse.

I hate this roundabout so much that, as I often travel to Chelmsford and Billericay, I change my route completely and go past Shenfield to get onto the A12. While this makes my journey 15 minutes longer, I'm probably losing a year of my life to stress every time I go via Brook Street, so overall, it's actually saving me time.

But there might be some hope for us nervous drivers in the future, with National Highways planning to make improvements to the roundabout in hopes of better traffic management. According to National Highways, up to 7,500 vehicles pass through the junction at peak times - so no wonder it takes me fifteen minutes to get from the Brentwood side to the A12 exit!

And, its quite affirming to see National Highways is fully aware of the horrific traffic that residents are experiencing, saying: "As the roundabout is operating at capacity, vehicles using the junction face congestion and delays, which affects local air quality."

Their research shows that traffic is expected to increase in the area by around 30 per cent by 2037, which means that over 9,000 vehicles could be passing through it by this date. So perhaps we should be counting our blessings with the delays we have now! Improvements to the roundabout include building a new two-lane loop road for traffic travelling from the M25 anti-clockwise onto the A12 eastbound (towards Brentwood). This will include the construction of new bridges to take the loop road over or under the other road links.

National Highways are also looking into changing the position of the A12 eastbound exit slip road and M25 anti-clockwise entry slip road to allow for the new loop road. They also want to widen the M25 anti-clockwise carriageway to provide more space for traffic leaving for the A12 eastbound. While these are all fantastic and much-needed ideas, Brook Street roundabout has plenty of issues already, such as the traffic light failures and current roadworks.

When these new works begin to take place, it can only be expected that traffic will be worse for a while - do you think that the end result will be worth it?

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