Brentwood town centre could at last be about to awake from its on-going traffic nightmare, if ambitious plans for a multi-million pound cure get government backing.

Fed up after years of traffic gridlock, noise and pollution, Brentwood Borough Council and Essex County Council are uniting to set up a war chest containing as much as £3,140,000 to provide them with the resources they need to sort out the town centre's traffic problems once and for all.

The cash will be used to carry out a massive consultation exercise - The High Street Area Study - given carte blanche to identify the problems, come up with solutions and then carry them out, all within the plan's five year lifetime.

County council officers are now preparing a bid for the extra cash to be submitted to the Government.

The study's main priority would be finding ways of slashing the number of cars using the High Street, particularly targetting motorists that use it as an A12 bypass when that road becomes congested.

And with 141 people injured on the High Street in the last 10 years, the study will look for ways of swinging the balance.

Changes to the Kings Road/High Street junction could also be on the cards to improve safety of people on foot, as could a whole host of other measures.

Brentwood council deputy chief executive Dave Marchant said: "It's quite a lot of money, and what that shows is that there is a willingness from everybody concerned to move things forward.

"We are quite pleased that the county council has recognised that this town has problems that have not been addressed and that it is looking to be a partner in resolving them.

"There could be huge range of issues we could cover. We will be talking to a lot of people about this, and we could identify even more.

"There are going to be some difficult decisions to make. There are no easy solutions to these problems and we have got to look at everything carefully in order that everybody can accept what we eventually do."

The study is at the heart of the new Local Transport Strategy for Brentwood, drawn up WS Atkins as part of Essex County Council's Essex Local Transport Plan. It was given the backing of councillors at a recent meeting of Brentwood council's environmental services committee.

The decision to concentrate on the town centre's traffic problems comes after years of neglect. Representatives of both councils met last week to discuss the plans.

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