Moray Council officers have met objectors to a major roads scheme to try to iron out the differences between the two sides.
The proposed Elgin Western Link Road, between Wittet Drive and Edgar Road, has provoked furious public debate for years.
During day-long talks at Moray College yesterday, local authority representatives tried to ease the concerns of some of the projects’s leading critics.
The workshop was held to discuss changes to plans which were rejected last year by the local body’s planning and regulatory services committee – only for the scheme to be controversially reinstated weeks later.
Campaigner Caroline Webster stressed that the presence of opponents at the meeting was in no way an admission that the road was an inevitability.
She said: “From the outset we said we would only participate as long as it was noted that we were against the whole proposal.
“What we were discussing was how to make sure the road would be safe if it does become an actuality.
“Although we are totally against it, if we can’t stop the road then we want to do as much as we can to influence the plans.”
During the talks, which were chaired by an independent party, Moray Council staff and local objectors discussed the reasons for the planning committee rejecting the proposal last November.
Consultants are now designing a new application for the road which will be presented to the planning and regulatory services committee later this year.
A spokesman for the local authority said: “The council is committed to resolving as many issues as possible with those who objected to the planning application in its previous form.
“All those that spoke against the application at the hearing were invited to the workshop and their input will be crucial to the final design.”
Moray Council believes the road is crucial to providing Elgin with a second railway crossing and meeting the transport needs of an expanding population.
Campaigners say the proposed layout will wreak havoc on residents’ lives.
Last November, in the face of mounting public pressure, the local authority’s planning committee voted to reject its own proposals for the road.
But a fortnight later, councillors voted to reinstate the project.