WORK dualling the A120 from Braintree to Stansted will begin in the next financial year, Deputy Prime Minister John Prescott announced last week.

Mr Prescott made the announcement as part of the government's transport plans for the next ten years.

But while Braintree district representatives have hailed the move, Bishop's Stortford councillors have expressed concern that traffic problems to the west of Stansted are being neglected.

East Herts district councillor Bernard Engel said it was just another example of the area to the west of Stansted losing out on traffic improvements in favour of areas to the north, east and south.

He said serious traffic problems existed on the A120 west of Stansted including congestion at the Little Hadham intersection, and a dangerous dip in the road before Standon.

'I want to see the A120 west of Stansted dualled all the way to Puckeridge on the A10.'

He said if Stansted expands, traffic will clog the A120 before action is taken to improve the roads.

'If we don't improve the A120 soon then there will be a major danger of accidents. If we improve the road the blackspots will be taken out.'

East Herts district councillor Keith Barnes said he would like to see the A120 dualled even further and turned into a main road linking the west and east of the country .

He said: 'At the moment we're dealing with country roads, which just isn't feasible in this day and age.'

He said the A120 also needed to be dualled for safety reasons, adding that he was not opposed to the expansion at Stansted, but the area to the west of the airport needed roads capable of dealing with the extra traffic generated.