One horse was killed and another hurt following road crashes as stray horses wreaked havoc on the roads around Wickford last week.

Now Wickford Police, who are treating the situation 'very seriously', have seized three horses, as they work to find a long-term solution to the problem.

Community liaison officer PC Geoff Whiter, responsible for overseeing the national Horsewatch scheme within the Basildon district, said: "This has always been a serious problem and we are vigorously dealing with it.

"We are working with Essex County Council and Basildon District Council to come up with a solution which will provide safer roads.

"For the moment if horses are on highways we have the power to seize them and if the horses are illegally placed on someone's land the land owner has the authority to have them removed."

Police have said although the problem of stray horses is seen elsewhere in the district, for example in Pitsea, the situation in Wickford is made more dangerous by the amount of development land near to major roads which is used illegally to keep horses on.

Last Thursday a horse was killed after being involved in a collision with a car on the A127 close to Wickford at around 4pm.

Fortunately the car driver survived the crash with only minor injuries despite the front of his car being caved in by the collision.

Rush hour traffic was held up for more than an hour as police dealt with the aftermath.

On Saturday at around 7pm another horse survived after being involved in a collision with a car travelling along the Southend bound track of the A127 close to the Dick Turpin Pub.

Despite running off the horse was later recovered by police.

On Monday morning two stray horses were seized on Wick Meadows after police received reports of stray animals from the public.

Police are in regular contact with travellers at sites in both Oak Road in Crays Hill and Meadow Lane in Runwell, but often have problems identifying an owner for an errant horse making prosecutions difficult.

PC Whiter said: "We want to work with travellers rather then against them to resolve this."

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