A SCHEME that could reduce bus journeys in Huntingdon by three-quarters will have to be put off until 2010 unless work is done early next year. A planned contraflow bus lane between George Street and the bus station would cut up to 76 per cent from journe

A SCHEME that could reduce bus journeys in Huntingdon by three-quarters will have to be put off until 2010 unless work is done early next year.

A planned contraflow bus lane between George Street and the bus station would cut up to 76 per cent from journey times between Hinchingbrooke and the town centre, Cambridgeshire County Council engineer Chris Creed told Huntingdonshire's traffic management committee on Monday.

But if the scheme, which will involve completely re-modelling the George Street/Walden Road junction on the ring road to allow buses to turn right against the flow of traffic, is delayed, it will have to wait, for safety reasons, until the second phase of the Princes Street redevelopment in the town centre is finished late in 2009.

The committee decided to press ahead with public consultation on the detail of the scheme as soon as possible.

Under the county council's plans it will be the only bus lane in Cambridgeshire from which taxis and cycles are banned, though a later parallel cycle lane is also planned.

Councillor Nick Guyatt, Huntingdonshire's executive cabinet member for transport, said the scheme was crucial to speeding up public transport and would provide "huge benefit for the population".