Brighton and Hove City Council has secured a £1.83 million grant to help fund a transport scheme that aims to reduce congestion and improve road safety.

The money, awarded by the Local Transport Body of the Coast to Capital LEP, will be spent on traffic management systems for "smoothing traffic flow" and making journey times "more reliable".

Cash will be spent on traffic lights, pedestrian crossings and variable message signs for travel and car park information.

The total cost of the project is £2.1 million.

The scheme is designed to help the city cope better with unexpected incidents and problems on the network, all while reducing air pollution caused by queuing traffic.

Councillor Ian Davey, lead member for transport, said: “Once again we have been successful in achieving funding for our transport infrastructure. Technology is developing all the time and we want to harness the very latest for the benefit of all our road users.

“This is great news for people however they travel and we have a wealth of expertise in this area, being pioneers of the live bus stop information system and 'talking bus stops.' We can harness this technology to provide people with instant information about anything affecting the network, such as traffic incidents or availability of car parking spaces and respond better to traffic incidents to ease congestion quicker.”

Although not part of this bid, the city council is also investigating the use of on-street parking 'sensors' that could alert drivers to where there are available parking spaces.