THE CONSORTIUM behind the proposal to reduce congestion across the South East Dorset region have been revealing more about their hi-tech plans for the area.

A group including representatives from Christchurch, Bournemouth and Poole, plus local businesses and employers, want to reduce traffic from single occupancy cars, manage the existing transport network more effectively and encourage more sustainable travel.

A spokesman for the consortium, which has been handed an initial £50,000 from the £1.28bn Transforming Cities Fund, to prepare a detailed proposal, said that modelling analysis showed that congestion across the south east Dorset area currently costs £275m per annum.

"With predictions showing the Bournemouth Primary Urban Area (which represents the SE Dorset region) to have the third fastest rate of population growth of any non-mayoral area in England over the next 10 years, we need to take a different approach to the way we manage the demand on the transport network," they said.

The new approach would be focussed on reducing dependency upon the car, 'creating more sustainable, low carbon, people-focussed places'.

"Our vision is to create a more accessible transport system with a target of reducing car trips by five per cent by 2022," said the consortium.

It believes there are currently limited viable transport alternatives to the car. "The absence of high-speed, direct north south bus routes, particularly to and from Wimborne and Ferndown is a major issue," it said. "The region has relatively good quality east-west public transport connectivity, however, inadequate links to other modes to and from stations inhibits greater use of trains."

Other issues include the 'very poor resilience' of the regional road network which means that 'incidents and roadworks, coupled with the lack of suitable alternative routes regularly leads to network gridlock'. This made traffic management and predicting the impact of roadworks and incidents difficult, said the consortium.

Among its plans are a Transport App which helps people plan journeys better, as well as public transport price information and discounts for non-car travel. it also want to introduce better technology for traffic management and co-ordination.

It's also proposing continuous cycle routes to Bournemouth from Wimborne and Ferndown.