A TOP scientist has been appointed to help plan out the use of cars in the heart of the planned £1 billion Purfleet-on-Thames regeneration project.

Professor Trevor Davies, former director of the climatic research unit at the University of East Anglia, has been appointed as chief sustainability advisor by the development company Urban Catalyst who have been appointed to create a blueprint for the new town.

Urban Catalyst is developing the regeneration scheme alongside Swan Housing Association and Thurrock Council. It will include a new town centre with shops and restaurants, up to 2,850 new homes, health facilities a new primary school and film and TV production studios.

Prof Davies will not receive any financial benefits in his role but will help advise on a range of design aspects that centre around minimising the use of cars.

These include planning new how shops and workplaces can be placed within walking distance of homes, designing bike storage and electric charge points, and implementing 20mph speed limits.

Assessments will also be carried out on public transport links, with a specific focus on Purfleet station.

Prof Davies said: "Sustainability has fallen up and down the agenda for the past few decades but there is now a clear potential for building on the widespread change in attitudes during the pandemic.

"Lockdown has made many realise the negative effects we have on our environment as a species and in turn how that impacts our own health.

"I will be working closely with Urban Catalyst to see how use of technology – both at a large-scale but also at a more granular level – combined with intelligent urban design can create places that are more sustainable, resilient and healthier, and I am delighted to have been appointed as the firm's chief sustainability adviser."

Thurrock Council declared a climate emergency in October, pledging to go carbon neutral by 2030. In December the British Heart Foundation named the borough one of the most polluted areas in the country and said living there is the equivalent of smoking almost 140 cigarettes a year.