A £1MILLION funding bid could bring improvements to junction 10 that allows traffic to join and exit the M5 in both directions.

Gloucestershire County Council and GFirst LEP are working together on a bid to the Department for Transport’s Large Local Major Transport Schemes Fund for money to create an outline business case for work at junction 10 on the M5.

Junction 10 is currently one of the few junctions on the M5 with restricted access.

At the moment traffic coming from the north can exit there and those wishing to travel north can join there.

However, the junction has no access to join the motorway to travel south, and there is no exit for motorway traffic coming from the south.

Traffic wanting to access the north west area of Cheltenham from the south has to exit at junction 11 and then use the A4013 at Princess Elizabeth Way which is busy residential area. Journeys to the south from this area suffer the same problem.

The bid will request approximately £1million of funding, and if successful, the county council will invest a further £25,000 for the next two years for the study and the business case.

Council chiefs say a new layout would see environmental benefits from less traffic travelling though Cheltenham.

Emergency services would also be able to respond more easily to incidents on the M5 near the junction.