A controversial move to stop buses and coaches using part of Southwold's High Street will start this month.

A controversial move to stop buses and coaches using part of Southwold's High Street will start this month.

In an experimental attempt to ease congestion in the town, Suffolk County Council and Southwold Town Council will temporarily move a bus stop outside Chapman newsagents to the Kings Head pub in a bid to stop large vehicles clogging up the narrow shopping strip.

A spokesman for Suffolk council said the bus stop is due to be moved 'during the third or fourth week' of July. The trial will then last 18 months. If deemed successful, the stop will be moved permanently.

While businesses opposed to the plan believe it will harm trade and discourage shoppers, supporters claim it is a sensible way to improve the notoriously bad traffic which plagues the town every summer.

Southwold council has pledged �10,000 to the project – but at a meeting on Tuesday councillor John Winter warned it as 'doomed to fail' if Suffolk does not provide a temporary bus shelter.

Councillor Teresa Baggot agreed and said: 'If we're moving this bus stop we have a responsibility to provide a shelter.'

Suffolk has, however, already said they would install a shelter for the winter only if the trial is successful during the summer.