Current Essex County Council transport policy will have a disastrous effect on the town, argues CCC in its latest policy document.

Jams Today, Superjams Tomorrow is a response to Colchester Council's Transport for Colchester document, but it is also a first shot in our campaign to influence Essex's LTP 2006 offering.

LTP 2006 is the blueprint for transport in Essex for the next five years.

In Jams Today, Superjams Tomorrow, CCC argues against Park and Ride, as well as the wider roads and bypasses proposed inTransport for Colchester.

CCC chairman Will Bramhill says: "Essex is proposing more of the same car orientated policy that has caused jams in the first place.

"The extra traffic created by a wider Cowdray Avenue will just clog up neighbouring roads and cost millions of pounds, and for what?

"Park and ride is also discredited as an idea of the 1980s that has nothing to do with solving congestion, more to do with making drivers think they're being green while costing a bomb on council tax. Even arguments that P&R supports town centres is doubtful.

"Essex must change its attitude if Colchester is to have a successful economy in the 2010s and beyond.

"Transport for Colchester and the new LTP need shaking up - radically.

"We have the chance to prepare this town for the next decade by making its roads free-flowing for essential users - and that will come by making cycling safer and with huge improvements with bus service frequency and reliability. Please read our document to make up your own mind!"