AROUND 20 residents and town councillors from Patchway journeyed to Kingswood to hand over a petition signed by 4,000 people.
The protesters want to stop dual carriageway Highwood Road being closed to traffic and launched the petition to try to get the issue debated at a South Gloucestershire Council meeting.
Now that the petition, entitled Keep Highwood Road Open, has been signed by more than 2,500 people they hope it will trigger a debate at the next full council meeting in July.
A new £6 million link road has been built between Cribbs Causeway and the A38 to replace Highwood Road, which was due to close to general traffic this month.
The authority wants to close the old road to integrate new homes being built at Charlton Hayes with existing residential areas.
It wants to put the road at the centre of a plan to create a "linear park" that will incorporate the bus route and an open space featuring trees and park benches.
The work is being funded by the Charlton Hayes developer Bovis Homes.
But town councillors and residents claim closing Highwood Road will turn other Patchway streets into rat runs and leave the town isolated.
The group wants non-commercial traffic to be allowed to join buses and bicycles on Highwood Road.
Town councillor Dave Tiley spoke to councillors at the authority's meeting last night.
"We are already suffering terrible rat runs on Patchway's residential streets," he said.
"If Highwood Road is shut the situation will get even worse.
"It means that traffic would have to drive all the way around Patchway to get from one side to the other.
"South Gloucestershire Council says closing the road will help to link the two parts of Patchway but it will actually cause a split.
"Developers built on Patchway land to create the Charlton Hayes development but these houses are now being marketed as in Filton.
"We think the closure of Highwood Road is creating that split – it's been a land grab."
Chris Mills, Patchway Town Council chairman, told the meeting: "This will not just affect residents but will affect local trade.
"There are shopkeepers who have reported a real downturn in trade already, as work has been done on Highwood Road. When it is completely shut they are worried people will stop coming to them.
"They are losing a big percentage of west Patchway if that road remains shut. We would like to see Highwood Road left open to non-commercial vehicles and kept as a local access route.
"We hope now that South Gloucestershire Council will again look at this issue and that it will be debated at the next council meeting."
As South Gloucestershire Council has now changed the way it is governed – returning to a committee system from one involving a ruling Cabinet – the protesters hope they can persuade it to reverse the earlier decision but they must wait to see if they have been successful in arguing their case.
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