Epsom and Ewell Council in Surrey has asked the government for £18m to build a road improvement scheme to ease traffic congestion in residential areas.
The new road - the Kiln Lane Link - would take container and industrial vehicles away from residential roads by directing traffic through an underpass beneath railway lines. The underpass would be used by trucks heading towards the waste transfer station and warehouses at Blenheim Business Park.
A spokesman for Epsom haulier BL
Penwarden says: "These plans have been in the pipeline for almost six years. Epsom town is a big problem, and I don't think the underpass will have any effect on town-centre congestion."
Council chair Jean Smith says: "The day-to-day effect [of the congestion] is that roads are congested and homes shake when the huge vehicles go past.
"At present," she adds, "the earliest the scheme will get to the front of the present Labour government's cash queue for the region will be 2011 - with the probability of a wait until 2016."
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