GREEN campaigners have urged transport chiefs to get on with plans to ban cars from Colchester High Street.

A car-free High Street has been talked about for years as a way of cutting pollution and congestion, and making the area more attractive to shoppers.

It only got a brief mention at a Colchester 2020 transport summit held yesterday in Castle Park.

Colchester Friends of the Earth said officials should stop being “mealy-mouthed” and move forward with a ban on cars.

Co-ordinator Paula Whitney said: “This plan to stop cars going down High Street was promised over a decade ago and all the necessary work has already been done to narrow the High Street to one lane with priority for pedestrian crossings.

“It would solve town centre congestion and cut air pollution immediately.”

Colchester 2020, which works to improve Colchester and is made up of council representatives and leaders of other big employers, has hosted transport forums every year since 2000.

But, despite the years of deliberation, Colchester Council’s transport policy manager, Paul Wilkinson, said the key issue of pedestrianisation was still up for debate.

He said many traders wanted a total ban on High Street traffic, but the council needed to consult bus operators to ask if they were happy to plan routes without using the High Street.

Mrs Whitney, who unfurled a “Car-Free High Street Now” banner outside the marquee where the summit was held, said she believed the question should have been settled by now.

She added: “Colchester’s bus routes need access down the High Street – we already have a large pedestrianised area.

The council’s Lib/Lab/Highwoods Independent administration is waiting for more public feedback before making a decision on pedestrianisation.

Labour said in its May election manifesto it favoured Mrs Whitney’s bus-only option.

The opposition Conservatives favour a total ban on vehicles.

Tory group leader Kevin Bentley said: “We have talked to a lot of people and a lot of businesses and they want to see it totally pedestrianised.

“If you are going to have a proper cafe culture with people sitting outside, you can’t do it if there are buses whizzing past.”