CRIBBS Causeway must be linked to new transport plans aimed at cutting congestion, say councillors in South Gloucestershire.

Representatives of the district are furious that the shopping district has been ignored in a rapid transport investment programme which will link South Gloucestershire with Bristol City centre and the south of the city.

The £180million north fringe to Hengrove package being proposed by the West of England Partnership, which is made up of South Gloucestershire Council, Bristol City Council, North Somerset Council and Bath and North East Somerset Council, does not yet include any planned improvements to public transport serving Cribbs Causeway.

Cllr Pat Hockey (Lib Dem, Frampton Cotterell) blasted the plans and said they would create chaos for South Gloucestershire commuters.

She said: "For people to use public transport instead of their cars it needs to be made easy and worthwhile.

"It is no good providing new forms of transport if they do not have quick and simple connections to each other. "A proper integrated transport system is what's needed, where a route isn’t rejected because the commercial considerations of competing retail centres or differing forms of transport have been pitted against another. The needs of the passenger must be put first."

The West of England Partnership is leading consultations on the proposals throughout November and there are no set routes or plans at this stage.

However, the main areas the money will be spent on include a rapid transit route connecting Hengrove with the city centre, rapid transit routes connecting the north and east areas of Bristol with the city centre, the Stoke Gifford Transport Link and the creation of a park and ride next to the M32.

Cllr Jan Woodley (Lib Dem, Patchway) said: "It's absolutely essential that the bus rapid transit route goes to Cribbs Causeway. That is both where thousands of people wish to go to shop and where many hundreds of people go to work."

She said rather than harming businesses at Cabot Circus, links between the two shopping centres could help retailers make more money.

Cllr Brian Allinson, the council's executive member for transport, said: “After all the transport fiascos of the past, including the costly failure of the tram, we need to deliver a scheme that stays within the funding envelope that we have been provisionally allocated. "This transport package is an initial building block on which we can expand when further funding is available in the future. What we are proposing is an important first step towards our ultimate long-term goal of having a rapid transit network that links up all of our major residential and commercial hubs.”

The package will be paid for with Government funding of £168million and the remainder will be met by South Gloucestershire and Bristol city councils. Before the cash is released, a business proposal has to be submitted to the Department of Transport in March 2010. To have your say on the plans visit www.westofengland.org