Cutting congestion around Crawley's Manor Royal business park is the target for 'easitCRAWLEY', the new joint initiative between businesses and Crawley Borough Council, set up through the Gatwick Diamond initiative. Sharing company travel plans, setting up car share networks and improving public transport are typical of the projects being explored to reduce car commuting.

easitCRAWLEY will encourage member businesses to carry out employee travel surveys, and share the intelligence gathered to identify and deliver solutions - meeting each month to develop a long term programme to reduce the numbers of employees who drive themselves to work. Increased use of local transport services and car sharing are two of the proposals being considered. The easit concept has been highly successful in reducing commuter traffic and parking problems for companies in Reigate, Redhill and Dorking. Steve Sawyer, Economic Development Officer at Crawley Borough Council, says: "Cutting congestion is one of our highest priorities and by combining local business and council efforts, things will start to happen." Tom Hall, Surface Access Manager at BAA Gatwick welcomes this approach - "easitCRAWLEY mirrors our own Gatwick commuter travel planning activities".

Founding members include Thales, XL, Chemigrapic, Metrobus, GSK, TUI Travel, Elekta, Siemens, B&CE Business services and Varian Medical Systems, who together employ a total of 11,000 people at Manor Royal. The project was initiated by the West Sussex Economic Partnership, as part of the Gatwick Diamond, to respond to one of the key concerns raised by local businesses. WSEP Chief Executive Alistair Smith says: "We were able to drawdown funding from the South East England Development Agency (SEEDA) to pump-prime the initiative. This has enabled Crawley Borough Council to work in partnership with West Sussex County Council to set up easitCRAWLEY. The initial support is fantastic and we're sure the programme will help reduce congestion and improve the environment."

Mel Mehmet, easit's Chief Executive, says: "Manor Royal is a major business centre in South East England and this scheme can develop to benefit thousands of employees working within the area. The potential and willingness for the organisations here to work together is huge and I am optimistic that we will cut congestion." Further information is available at www.easit.org.uk.