PLANS to improve a run-down town centre, branded the worst in Hampshire, have moved up a gear.

County councillors have decided which part of Totton should be the first to benefit from an urban regeneration scheme promised for the town.

A wide range of improvements will be carried out to the Rumbridge Street area over the next two years.

It follows a series of workshops at which residents supported a set of proposals to give Rumbridge Street and neighbouring roads a major facelift.

A report to the county council's roads and development sub-committee said: "No other area in Totton enjoyed the same level of consensus."

Highway chiefs have drawn up a 12-point plan to restore Rumbridge Street, the High Street and Junction Road to their former glory.

Top of the list is a proposal to promote and support the restoration of property frontages. The county council is also planning to resurface roads and paths, remove overhead wires and reduce the impact of lorries in the High Street.

Totton's only Grade II listed building, the Station Hotel, is likely to have its setting enhanced.

Highway chiefs are also proposing to upgrade the junction of Rumbridge Street and the A35 and improve the area's links with nearby Bartley Water.

Totton county councillor Edith Randall compared the town to Cinderella.

She said its charms had been overshadowed by "ugly sisters" such as the shopping precinct at the junction of Commercial Road and Library Road.

She added: "Rumbridge Street traders are very interested in the proposed improvements and most anxious to cooperate as are the residents.

"Projects such as the completion of previous environmental improvement schemes could be put in hand very swiftly."

Three years ago Totton town centre was branded the worst in Hampshire in a hard-hitting report published by the county council.

The report said the main shopping area was ugly, run-down and swamped with traffic.