TRAFFIC chiefs are poised to reopen a major Winchester road after an experimental closure sparked by the Covid crisis.

Hyde Street was shut last year to allow for easier social distancing on North Walls, one of the city's main arteries. Temporary barriers that narrowed the two-lane highway to one lane will be removed from North Walls.

The closure was popular with people living in Hyde as it made their neighbourhood much quieter but largely unpopular with people living on roads made busier such as Worthy Lane and drivers stuck in the increased traffic in the city centre.

The recommendation has been revealed with the publication today of the reports going to the Hampshire County Council executive decision day on Thursday July 29.

The report said the closure of Hyde Street and the narrowing of North Walls would still be "considered as part of a longer term package of improvements". But it admitted the arrangement has been "unable to cope" with current traffic volumes.

A new idea is traffic lights on Worthy Lane with Andover Road and keeping Hyde Street open one-way only.

North Walls: narrowing is set to be ended

North Walls: narrowing is set to be ended

City councillor John Tippett-Cooper said on social media this afternoon: "The bottom line with all of this is that we have an increasingly more evident and serious climate emergency - as a City we need to find the most effective ways of reducing air pollution and encouraging people out of cars where possible - not every idea seeking to achieve this will work, but we have to do everything possible to achieve this goal."

Meanwhile, the decision day is set to approve other less controversial measures including pedestrian improvements on Jewry Street, contraflow cycling on St Peter Street and Parchment Street; and a signal crossing of Romsey Road at Clifton Terrace.

Earlier this year the county council consulted on the Hyde Street/North Walls changes and 970 people responded, with 53 per cent saying it would encourage them to use 'active travel', walking or cycling, on North Walls whilst 42 per cent said it would not.

Closing Hyde Street split the city with 46 per cent both for and against. A petition with 1,618 called ‘Re-open Hyde Street to all vehicles’ was presented to the county council in March. Groups such as Winchester Action on Climate Change campaigned for the closure to be retained.