COUNCILLORS have called for a public inquiry if a controversial closure in the central reservation of the A19 is made permanent.

A gap across the dual carriageway at the Black Swan Crossroads, near Hutton Rudby, North Yorkshire, was shut last July after four fatal accidents in five years.

The closure is an 18-month experiment, but figures from the Highways Agency show the move has cut accidents.

Residents near the junction say their communities have been divided by the closure and have called for the gap to be opened or for a bridge to be built.

At a North Yorkshire County Council meeting this week, councillors said they were unhappy about a permanent closure.

They decided the agency should be asked to give priority for funding to provide a bridge and that the council should continue its objection to the experimental order being made permanent.

They also said that if the agency seeks to make the closure permanent, they would ask for a public inquiry.

The decision has delighted local campaigners. Colin Hinton, from Rountons Parish Council, said: "We are pleased that the county council is standing up for its electorate and we will give them all the information we can to prove the case of how much we are being inconvenienced by this closure."

The Highways Agency said that at the moment, the order was experimental and would continue for more than a year.

A spokesman said a feasibility study was also looking at the possibility of a bridge.