RINGWOOD Town Council is to continue pushing for the permanent closure of the West Street/A31 junction to be brought forward.

But in the meantime councillors agreed to ask New Forest District Council (NFDC) to include a temporary closure in its action plan for the use of its share of the Reopening of High Streets Safely Fund.

The matter was discussed during a meeting of Ringwood Town Council on July 29, which was held online via Zoom.

Councillor Philip Day said: “The real issue here is the timing of the closure of West Street. We’ve already through my committee asked the proposals to close West Street in conjunction with the A31 scheme be brought forward. What this is suggesting is that maybe as an alternative the temporary closure of West Street, pending it’s permanent closure be included in NFDC’s action plan.

“My personal take on all of that is yes it would be very nice if West Street was closed at the earliest opportunity to stop the rat-running and relieve the congestion and danger to pedestrians who are forced out into the road in the high street in particular but also in the Market Place. But without the full cooperation of Highways England and Hampshire County Council particularly in terms of providing signage on the A31 in the wider area I’m not convinced a temporary closure would necessarily achieve the desired aims.”

He suggested pressing Hampshire County Council and through them the Highways agency to advance the permanent closure of West Street and if that were to fail ask NFDC to include a temporary closure in the action plan until the town could get a permanent one.

District and town councillor Jeremy Heron said a full closure could take “some time”, adding: “It is advisable that if we want to bring this forward to help alleviate the traffic on the High Street due to Covid-19 then indeed a temporary closure is the way. That temporary closure could run right up to the point where the permanent closure comes in. If we step back from a temporary closure and look at going forward with the permanent closure we may create such a delay as to it becomes irrelevant to try to support the high street through the Covid-19 issues.

Cllr Heron said: “We do still need to look at a temporary closure then once that is in place then we can perhaps then look forward to the possibility of making that permanent.”

County councillor Michael Thierry said West Street was a “two-phased operation - one temporary and obviously looking forward to a permanent closure”.

He also questioned the need to close West Street in relation to the Covid-19 situation stating there were “many occasions” where there were “umpteen” car parking spaces even in the Market Place which demonstrates there is “not the traffic movements through the High Street that perhaps was anticipated”.

This was disputed by councillors Tony Ring and Philip Day. Cllr Ring said: “The fact of the matter is pedestrian queues do form in the High Street from time to time and because of pavement width, in order, at the one metre level, for people to pass safely they have to move into the road.”

He said a problem was “through-traffic hurtling down the High Street to access the A31”, adding: “If that closure were brought into view yes the amount of traffic in High Street would be still be at the local level but reduced to a more manageable level that is considered that we can live with.”

There were also concerns over making Meeting House Lane one-way. Cllr Day said: “Trying to put traffic lights there, trying to make it one-way or anything like that it is dead in the water. It is a waste of time. I wouldn’t want to press that any further. It is just wasting our time and money.”

Cllr Gareth Deboos felt the option “shouldn’t be taken off the table” and could be reconsidered later.

The meeting heard the planning committee had supported the proposed traffic order for the reversal of direction of Meeting House Lane and the closure of the West Street junction of the A31.

Councillors agreed to ask NFDC to include the temporary closure of the West Street/ A31 junction in its action plan, including appropriate signage advising drivers of the closure. It was also agreed that the council would continue to press the county council to bring forward the permanent closure of the West Street/A31 junction and the reversal of Meeting House Lane.