SOUTHEND Council has insisted there are “no issues” at Cuckoo Corner, despite furious councillors demanding the major A127 junction is overhauled.

Labour councillors Daniel Cowan and Lydia Hyde have repeatedly called for the junction to be altered by removing traffic lights, introducing box junctions or moving pedestrian crossings to tackle bottlenecks at the roundabout.

A motion put forward by St Laurence ward councillors received support from councillors, but a report ahead of the cabinet meeting claims “data does not currently support major intervention”.

The report recommends that the junction “continues to be monitored”, but a scheme will not be designed until “data supports an intervention”.

Mr Cowan, leader of the Labour group in Southend, claimed it is “undeniable” that there are major issues and the council must take action.

He said: “We all know there are major issues with the junction. That is undeniable.

“Our original motion called for action where the data supported intervention and to collect the data if we did not have it.

“The report shows that we do not have the data [for 2023] but recommends that we collect it.

“I hope that cabinet agrees to collect this data and we can revisit this junction after no more than six months with a view to taking data-driven affirmative action to improve traffic flow and air quality at this junction.

“The original motion suggested we could look at a number of options, such as traffic light phasing, removal of unnecessary lights, and box junctions.

“These seem to be the most obvious fixes and we should direct our data and modelling towards these options, rather than look at any major engineering works.

“So now, we need to collect the data so we can understand at a detailed level what the causes are so we can make the improvements the junction desperately needs.”

A previous overhaul of the layout at the junction was carried out in March 2011 thanks to funding from Government.