A protest was staged yesterday by residents of a one-way road against plans to reverse the flow of traffic.

East Anglian Daily Times: Residents, school children and parents and other concerned individuals protest against the proposed traffic flow reversal in Priory Street.Residents, school children and parents and other concerned individuals protest against the proposed traffic flow reversal in Priory Street.

Essex County Council has put forward plans to change the direction cars travel along Priory Street in Colchester, in a bid to ease congestion in the town.

Vehicles would enter from East Hill under the proposals.

But the Priory Area Residents’ Association (PARA) demonstrated against the scheme outside the firstsite gallery, which was hosting an exhibition by the county council about the plans, before staging a group visit to the consultation.

The group is concerned the change would turn their road into a rat-run and be dangerous for people attending the school or places of worship along the street, as well as reducing air quality.

PARA says it has the backing of the town MP Will Quince, ward councillors and a number of organisations including the local tourist guide heritage groups.

Jos Claessen, group treasurer, said: “Traffic reversal is a very bad idea.

“There is a very narrow pavement on one side of the road, and parts with no pavement, and if you reverse the flow it becomes a through route rather than just to park and traffic will speed up. It is an issue of safety.

“The protest went very well and a lot of the group argued their points with the county council team at the exhibition.”

Colchester Borough Council is also consulting on plans to revamp the car park which runs most of the length of Priory Street.

PARA say it has some concerns around those proposals depending on whether or not the traffic flow is reversed, and has called for the car park consultation not to end until a decision has been made by County Hall.