PLANS to give Totton town centre a multi million-pound facelift will fail to solve its biggest traffic problem, it has been claimed.

David Harrison, former chairman of Totton and Eling Town Council, said the scheme would do nothing to ease congestion caused by the level crossing in Junction Road.

Mr Harrison, pictured, called for the busy crossing to be replaced by a bridge or an underpass.

The gates are closed to vehicles for a total of 20 minutes every hour, resulting in severe traffic queues between Commercial Road and Rumbridge Street.

Mr Harrison, who is no longer a councillor, raised the issue during a public participation period at the start of a council meeting.

He said: "The crossing has been causing congestion for more than a century.

"The town centre improvements contain no proposals to remedy the problem, which will get substantially worse if Dibden Bay is developed as a port.

"I don't accept that having traffic gridlocked in the town centre for hours every day is preferable to a bridge or an underpass.

"Yes, it would be expensive - it might even be technically difficult - but I assume that a nation which can build a Channel Tunnel could manage a small underpass in Junction Road."

However, Councillor Edith Randall said an underpass would have to be several metres deep and a bridge would require a long run-up at each end.

"In other words a nice idea but not feasible," she said.

George Dart, chairman of Totton's planning and transport committee, referred to a previous meeting at which members had been briefed by representatives from Hampshire County Council.

He said: "A bridge over the railway would be very obtrusive and dominating.

"There is also a danger that it would attract more traffic to the town centre, which would make it rather self-defeating."