Traffic calming measures on Melksham town bridge will be scrapped and replaced later this year.

A zebra crossing, linking the town's Millennium Walk, will replace a raised crossing near the Sainsbury's roundabout while a pink traffic cushion will be removed altogether.

Town councillors hope work will start on the new £8,500 scheme by September as Wiltshire County Council finally admitted the failures of the present system.

Civic leaders in Melksham blasted the pink traffic cushion and deformed road crossing installed in 2000 as dangerous and inadequate.

Town councillors said drivers repeatedly swerved around the pink cushion putting the lives of pedestrians at risk. Children walking home from George Ward School reported several near misses.

Wiltshire County Council's scrutiny committee was called to look at the problems on the town bridge and came up with a revised plan.

Director of environmental services George Batten was made responsible for the design of the new layout which will include the zebra crossing linking the town's Millennium Walk a project due to have been completed for Princess Anne's visit in 2000.

Funds from the Millennium Walk Committee, Melksham Town Council and Melksham Without Parish Council will be used to pay for the scheme.

But business owners in Old Broughton Road, who fear the road will be closed off again to allow for the bungled measures to be corrected, say they could not survive another dip in business.

Peter Allerton-Baldwin, of the Roundabout MOT Centre, Old Broughton Road, said he could be forced out of business if the bridge was closed to traffic while work was carried out.

Melksham mayor Vic Oakman said: "We will at last have a proper zebra crossing which will generate its own form of traffic calming on the town bridge. I hope planning applications will be submitted soon as the bridge is a listed building. We are expecting work to start by September.

"There will be a lot of relieved parents who worried about their children walking home from school."