More than £200,000 has been secured from Essex County Council to help fund a scheme worth about £600,000 to revitalise Braintree's Market Place.

Braintree Council made a successful bid for £230,000 from the county council for a project to revamp the town centre site, involving plans for a continental cafe culture.

It joins £240,000 from Braintree Council's capital programme and £192,000 from the Freeport development.

Members of the Braintree area committee will pick one of three options for the makeover, provisionally next month.

Peter Crofts, head of planning services at Braintree Council, said the additional money meant the council could do something the people of Braintree would be proud of.

Mr Crofts said: "Because we have got money of this order, it means we can do an attractive job.

"If we only had Freeport's £192,000, it would mean we would have to settle for something fairly cosmetic.

"Two-thirds of a million, I think, means we can do something Braintree people can be proud of."

Published Friday August 16, 2002

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