Campaigners fighting for a long-awaited link road between Hatfield Peverel and Witham are preparing to take their argument to Parliament.

The six-person delegation to London includes Braintree MP Alan Hurst and Hatfield Peverel district councillor John Jarvis.

Also in the party will be county councillor John Gyford and Brian Goodwin, from the county council's highways department.

They will discuss the proposed A12 link road with parliamentary under-secretary Keith Hill - from the Department of the Environment, Transport and Regions (DETR) - at a meeting next Wednesday .

Mr Hurst, who raised the matter during a Christmas parliamentary debate, said: "I've been pushing for this meeting for some time.

The minister promised to see us some time ago and now we're clearly hoping for a good result."

Campaigners have been demanding a link road for a number of years to make joining the dual carriageway safer and to enable local traffic to avoid it altogether.

The principle has already been backed by the Government and transport secretary John Prescott is expected to make a final decision on the matter soon.

The stretch of the A12 between the two communities claimed five lives in nine months during 1996 and 1997, including the death of a mother and her six-year-old child.

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