Furious Tories claim the council should "come clean" on town centre plans which they believe could amount to nothing less than pedestrianisation and a dreaded ring road.

They stormed out of last week's council meeting in a bitter row over proposals for a referendum on opening the North Service Road to two way traffic.

The Tories claim the scheme may be part of plans to pedestrianise the High Street and impose a ring road on the town - something fiercely denied by the ruling Liberal Democrats.

Angry Conservative leader Phil Reed said: "I am asking for this council to come clean on its policies for the town centre. The council has no right to impose a ring road on Brentwood."

And he is citing a county transport report which says Brentwood Council is supporting "through traffic removal in the High Street" and charging for workplace car parking.

Cllr Reed added: "The facts are that to implement pedestrianisation of the High Street a ring road will be needed in Brentwood to take the traffic.

''The ring road scheme was overwhelmingly rejected by the people of Brentwood some years ago - but now it seems that the ring road is back on the council's secret agenda."

Liberal Democrats once again dismissed the notion that there is any policy to pedestrianise the town centre or to create a ring road.

Policy and co-ordinating committee chairman, Charles Myers, said: "There is always a lot of discussion as to whether there should or should not be pedestrianisation of the High Street. We don't have a formal policy on that."

Leader of the council, David Gottesmann, said some people would support pedestrianisation and some would be against it, but it was not something which had yet been addressed.

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