Plans to alter priorities on West Mersea's main traffic system have been branded "pure madness".

Colchester planners, deciding the future of the Fountain Hotel site, look set to give vehicles on the adjacent East Road right of way over those on Mill Road, the principal route into town.

Colchester-based Colne Housing Society and developer David Rose want to demolish the unlisted Edwardian building at Queens Corner, and create 13 homes, four of them for wheelchair-users.

But campaigners, including West Mersea Town Council, are determined to see the 90-year-old Fountain - situated at the junction of Mill Road and East Road - retained.

Resident Paula Whitney, of Shears Crescent, who is still awaiting a response to her improved £180,000 cash bid for the Fountain, described the road priority change as "extraordinary" and "total nonsense".

But Colchester councillors are today due to consider a legal agreement that would alter the traffic priorities and create a new footpath fronting the development.

The traffic changes have been suggested by Essex highways authority in the absence of a mini-roundabout, part of a previous application approval.

The housing society said keeping the Fountain would mean the loss of three new homes, resulting in a £60,000 loss in land value. It also claims conversion costs would be more than new building.

Converted for the new archive on 19 November 2001. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.