Money could at last be found to improve Braintree's bus park in Victoria Road.

Braintree Council is prepared to look at funding improvements - but only if a bus company also takes action to develop the so-called "Third World" depot in Fairfield Road.

Bus users have complained about the lack of waiting facilities, including a proper bus station and shelters in and about the town for many years.

At a meeting of Braintree Town Centre Strategy Group yesterday members asked representatives of First in North Essex (formerly Eastern National) what the bus company intended to do.

First stopped using the bus park in Victoria Road due to a charge Braintree Council places on each bus using the facility. Instead the company uses the bus garage in Fairfield Road where passengers have to wait with no shelters.

Brian Cornell, operations supervisor for First in Braintree, said when all their bus routes were taken into consideration the charge amounted to around £20,000 a year.

Peter Crofts, head of planning at the council, said ways to fund improvements and reduce the charge could be found but that the situation was a "double edged sword".

Mr Crofts said: "The impetus is always on what the council is doing to solve these problems."

But he stressed the bus company also had to prove it was willing to develop facilities.

Published Friday, March 22, 2002