Eastleigh council has backed a move to ban lorries from the town centre - sparking fears that haulage firms could be forced to close in the area.

Civic chiefs have narrowly voted in favour of the lorry ban in a bid to clean up air pollution on the town's streets.

The borough's Eastleigh Local Area Committee agreed to ask Hampshire County Council to "urgently give permission" to ban all vehicles over 7.5 tonnes from 8am to 9.30am and from 4.30pm to 6pm.

Local transport operators have warned they might pull out of the town if a ban is introduced, claiming it would cause a "nightmare scenario".

Clive Watkins, managing director of the Eastleigh-based Lambert Brothers Haulage Ltd, told councillors the company operated 70 vehicles and employed 125 staff. He warned: "Make it too difficult and established employers like us might look elsewhere to ply their trade."

Mr Watkins claimed the proposed ban was ill thought out and questioned where lorries would park if they were in

traffic and unable to make it into the town by the start of the ban.

He added HGVs were being wrongly blamed for pollution.

Under the ban, championed by Councillor Chris Thomas, exceptions would be granted for buses and emergency service vehicles. He told committee colleagues his objective was to improve traffic flows, reduce pollutant emissions and improve air quality..

He said: "This motion is not going to solve the problem, but it is going to prod people who have other wider views to take part in a discussion to see what we can do."

Councillor Peter Luffman said he believed a lorry ban would cause great problems for town centre businesses and impact on employment prosp-ects.

But Councillor Glynn Davies-Dear urged councillors: "Look on this as a means of highlighting the problem we have in our town, the suffering of people in our town, and our urgent desire that somebody does something."

An Eastleigh council spokes-man told the Daily Echo: "Any decision on a lorry ban rests with Hampshire County Coun-cil. The motion, at this stage, is a request to the highways authority to investigate the idea."