THE DIRECTION of traffic using a major Winchester one-way road is to be reversed next month.

Bosses at Winchester City Council have made the decision to introduce the change in Parchment Street to stop thousands of drivers using it as a rat run every day.

The experimental one-way system comes into force on November 8 with traffic-flow reversed from St George's Street towards North Walls. At the same time the one-way flow in Middle Brook Street, between its junction with North Walls and Cossack Lane, is to be cancelled.

Traffic will not be able to turn right from North Walls into Middle Brook Street and will not be able to leave Middle Brook Street onto North Walls.

Richard Knasel, Cabinet portfolio holder for economy and transport, said: "We hope this will address a problem that residents in Parchment Street have had for some time with up to 8,000 drivers a day using it as a rat-run. We also listened to the fears that residents of Middle Brook Street had that traffic would merely have transferred to their road.

"We think this is a very sensible solution where we hope everyone can be a winner."

Parchment Street will close on November 8 for as long as it takes the contractors to carry out the work, and Middle Brook Street will be shut for about two weeks.

Access to Middle Brook Street will be restricted during this period and some parking bays will be suspended to provide safe working areas for the contractor to carry out kerb and carriageway realignment.

Traffic flows will be closely monitored during the experiment and a report will go to the city council Cabinet within a year to see whether the changes are made permanent or not.