Plans for the long-awaited Cressing loop rail link between Braintree and Witham have been brought back from the dead.

The additional train track would double the number of services to and from Liverpool Street and has been put forward in a report which will be handed to the government.

Council leader Graham Butland said: “We have never regarded it as being dead. We have always regarded it as being of the utmost importance to the Braintree district."

Mr Butland said the proposed scheme would cost about £10 million and could be funded with money raised from the government’s New Homes Bonus grant.

See this week's Times for the full story.