A market town hopes a new traffic survey will prove its need for a bypass.

Although Halstead councillors have been told the earliest possibility of a bypass for the town is not until 2015, they hope "remedial measures" to help reduce congestion and wear and tear could happen early next year.

The ray of hope came in a letter from Tony Ciaburro, Essex County Council director for development, highways and transportation, to the Halstead Town Centre Strategy Panel.

These measures would depend on the results of surveys undertaken this summer and winter, outside of school holidays.

Most of the data will be gathered using automatic plate recognition technology from mobile cameras.

The aim will be to record where people are travelling to, vehicle volumes, traffic flow and possibly journey times and queuing data.

After a Halstead Town Centre Strategy Panel meeting Joe Pike, county councillor for Halstead, said: "It's the first time we have got as far as having surveys done.

"It's pleasing to know that someone's listening to us."

He added: "We're not going to leave it lying there.

"I will continue to remind people in county hall that real relief is needed to take some of the heavy lorries out of the town."

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