Calls have been made for pedestrianising a section of Dorchester's High East and High West streets as part of the project to make improvements around the Town Pump.

A meeting of the town's joint heritage committee heard that it would be better for tourism and would allow the area to be used for a market and public performances, giving new focus to the town centre.

Both streets have long been identified as the county town's worst pollution area because of the high levels of passing traffic – although previous suggestions to reduce the flow, or stop it altogether, failed to get off the ground.

The latest suggestion has come from Andy Worth from the New Hardy Players.

He told an online meeting of the committee on Tuesday evening that the consultant's suggestion of using the area around the Town Pump for open-air performance with traffic going past was "a bit daft."

He said he had made the case for pedestrianisation of the High Street between the two sets of traffic lights at the junctions either side of the area.

"That could be a really, really, useful tourist area, a performance area, without traffic whizzing about all over the place," he said.

Cllr Frances Hogwood said she welcomed the proposals to revamp the Cornhill area which would make the area more attractive – but said any changes would be diminished by the heavy traffic grinding up and down the High Street just yards away from the Town Pump.

"Serious consideration should be given to that and ways of mitigating it," she said.

Committee chairman Gareth Jones said the issue was a long-standing one which needed Dorset Council to resolve.

Other committee members said that the proposals for 'block seating' in the area were not popular.

Cllr Stella Jones said the historic Town Pump would need to be preserved and that any seating in the area, at the top end of South Street, should not infringe on the structure.

"One of the ideas was to put seating half-way up the Town Pump. The Town Pump itself, not just the top half, is important and we should make sure all of it is visible," she said.

Cllr Jones suggested one idea for paving in the area might be to include an area of mosaic, reflecting Dorchester's Roman history, and possibly a small display area of finds which would lead people to find out more at the County Museum.

Fellow town councillor Alistair Chisholm said the plans he had looked at for the area failed to reflect the long and important history of Dorchester, dating back to the stone and iron ages.

The meeting heard that one of the plans includes having water flowing down the structure to reflect its original use. In its heyday, before the Municipal Buildings were constructed, it would have been part of the town's original market areas and one of the central meeting points for the town.

The consultation documents can be viewed at – Dorchester Cornhill Project