HERTFORDSHIRE County Council has withdrawn proposals for a relief road around Sawbridgeworth after locals demanded a proper bypass to reduce traffic through the town.

The council's U-turn came after a large proportion of the 1,100 people who attended a public exhibition of the council's plans gave them the thumbs down in December.

Sawbridgeworth town councillor Norman Brown said he was pleased the plans had been scrapped.

He said: 'It would have been a short-term measure which would have created queues of traffic at either end of the town. We need a proper bypass ? we're one of the few towns of our size that hasn't got one.'

Mr Brown said the town was pinned in by massive development to the north and south, which would only serve to increase traffic through the town. Expansion at Stansted Airport would compound the problem.

'We feel very aggrieved that every time there's a problem on the M11 all the traffic is diverted through Sawbridgeworth. We need a bypass now.'

Mr Brown said the traffic problem could have been solved years ago if an additional junction on the M11, midway between Harlow and Bishop's Stortford, had been developed in conjunction with a bypass.

But that plan was scuttled by Essex councillors.

County council environment committee chairman Jane Pitman said the creation of a bypass was unlikely because of technical, environmental and cost implications.

She said: 'Unfortunately a full scale bypass is just not a feasible option at this stage, not least because of its likely environmental impact. However, that issue may be looked at again as part of the Structure Plan Review and the M11 Corridor Studies.'

She said the council had responded to local concern that the mooted relief road was not the kind of radical solution needed to solve the town's traffic problems.