IT IS one of the most controversial traffic calming measures the city centre has seen.

But the closure of Hyde Street looks to be staying until at least September.

Hampshire County Council is looking to remove most of its temporary emergency active travel schemes.

However those in Winchester are likely to stay. These include the Hyde Street closure, the tables and chairs pavement license/pedestrianisation of The Square and the Broadway, and the lane closure in North Walls.

The traffic regulation orders in the city had been earmarked to end in September anyway, and the council looks to stick to that date.

A further update will be reported to the July Executive Member for Economy, Transport and Environment Decision Day.

City councillor Martin Tod said: "I'm really pleased that the City Council's scheme in the Square and the Broadway looks set to be guaranteed until the end of September. While there are still things to improve, it's generally working well. The City Council team is working with residents, businesses and county officers to improve the scheme still further and to ensure that it can continue after that date.

"In terms of the other county schemes in the city, there's an urgent need to listen to what residents said about them and the proposed improvements to them - adapt the designs where possible - and get improvements in place as fast as possible.

"In the rest of the county, the plan is to take everything out as soon as restrictions end and then put some of them back in later. That all seems a bit weird - I know some other councils aren't doing this - and where schemes are supported locally, such as in Eastleigh, pretty counter-productive. I'll be challenging this decision at the meeting next Thursday."

This comes after the county council announced it would be reviewing temporary emergency active travel schemes across the county.

Since May 2020, and the award of £863,000 of Government emergency funding, a total of 42 emergency schemes across Hampshire towns and villages were delivered.

Councillor Russell Oppenheimer, the County Council’s Executive Member for Highway Operations, said: “During the pandemic, the emergency schemes were necessary to support social distancing and give confidence to the public that it was safe to go back to the shops. I know there has been a mixed reaction to the emergency schemes in Hampshire and I will be reviewing the officers’ report carefully before making decisions next week. The lessons learned from the schemes will certainly feed into the next phase of Active Travel measures.”