AN EXPERIMENTAL road closure has gone ahead as planned despite a mass petition being lodged against it.

Residents, parents and teachers have battled for weeks against the planned closure of South Road in Morecambe - but it was last used as a through road on Monday morning.

Calls for action to be taken resounded around the resort after the tragic deaths of two youngsters.

Lancaster City Council dived in to action to try and make the road safer and it was closed on Monday. South Road will remain shut for 18 months for the council to monitor whether permanent closure is the way forward.

Residents on South Road say the measure is drastic and want traffic calming instead.

And residents on surrounding roads claim that the closure will cause a 'rat run' and increase the risk of another fatality.

Last week, the Citizen reported that Duncan Brown, head teacher of Lancaster Road Primary School, was also concerned the closure would lead to increased risk to pupils.

A monitoring group set up to keep the city council informed of incidents on the road contains three residents from South Road and three from other roads in the area. It will meet every month.

Cllr Janice Hanson, Cabinet member for transport, says closing the road was the only option because it would have been too costly to put speed humps along its one mile length.

She adds: "I hope that it works and we are hoping that people will use Lancaster Road or go down the promenade to avoid any problems on the other roads."

She promises that the situation will be closely monitored and that the road can be re-opened at any time if big problems come to light.

However, resident Rodger Dennison is still sceptical.

"If the scheme doesn't work is the council really going to abandon it and hold its hands up and say it was wrong?" he asks. "And what are the parameters of what is not acceptable?"

A city council spokesman says: "The traffic regulation order to close South Road came into force on March 7. Work on the closures will com-mence in the next few days and it will be in place for a maximum of 18 months during which time traffic volumes and speeds will be monitored at nine sites."