HUNDREDS of people have signed a petition against plans to stop private vehicles using Portswood Broadway.

Some 232 people have hit out against the Southampton City Council plan in just 12 days.

As reported, the council wants to shut off access for all except pedestrians, buses and taxis.

The plan would shut the high street between Westridge Road and Highfield Lane to private vehicles in order to make the district centre a more ‘vibrant’ and ‘greener’ place.

A survey was sent out and is open until November 11.

Now a petition has been started in an attempt to get the council to backtrack on the plans.

READ MORE: Plans to improve Portswood district will disrupt thousands of journeys

The petition said: “The limited benefits of the proposed scheme will be far outweighed by significant and unacceptable adverse impact to local businesses and residential neighbourhoods which includes three conservation areas.

“There is already a traffic problem in the surrounding areas without potentially another 12,000 cars a day adding to the congestion and pollution.

“We all want a greener environment but shifting one problem and creating another i.e. traffic from an A road (a major road intended to provide large scale transport links within or between areas) to a residential area is NOT the answer.”

Planners said that a ‘parallel corridor’ of Thomas Lewis Way, and the improvements to its junction which are currently underway, enable the ‘unique opportunity’ to shift traffic away from Portswood Road.

The petition needs another 1,268 signatures to make it to full council and it has until the last day of the year to get them.

If plans were to go ahead, construction would begin in summer 2023.