By Juliette MaxamA PLAN for a town to have its first park-and-ride site should move a step closer this week.Essex County Council wants to build a £4.

By Juliette Maxam

A PLAN for a town to have its first park-and-ride site should move a step closer this week.

Essex County Council wants to build a £4.4million 1,000 space park-and-ride site to serve Chelmsford beside the A12 at Sandon, on the site known as the White House.

Some of the land, at the A1060/A12/A414 interchange, belongs to Chelmsford Borough Council and is currently vacant, while a house that once stood on the site was knocked down 10 years ago after a fire.

Chelmsford Borough Council's cabinet will meet on Wednesday to discuss whether to lease the land to the county council at a less-than-market rent to allow the park-and-ride scheme to get under way.

The county council wants to build the park-and-ride site this year. Initially it would have 600 spaces, but ultimately there would room for 1,000 cars.

The scheme includes bus terminus and cycle parking facilities and modern buses dedicated to the park-and-ride service.

It also involves a new bus lane and bus route around Chelmsford town centre, bus route priority measures in the town centre and real-time information on park-and-ride buses and car park.

Essex County Council has proposed that the service would operate six days a week, from 7am to 7pm. Buses would go to the railway station, shopping centres and large employment districts.

It is being funded mainly from the Government's local transport plan, with £400,000 coming from the county council.

A report to cabinet said: "The borough council is supportive of the park-and-ride proposals. There are no other proposals for the use of the White House site and it is recommended that the land should be made available."

juliette.maxam@eadt.co.uk