A scheme to spend nearly half a million pounds on re-opening a closed Exeter road to traffic has been rubber-stamped.
But cyclists who object to cars and lorries being allowed back into Dryden Road have warned that they are preparing a legal challenge to the move.
And objectors say they have safety concerns over allowing cars back in.
Members of the Exeter highways and traffic orders committee (HATOC) have backed the latest designs for the re-opened road, which will include cycle lanes, pedestrian crossings, a 20mph speed limit and speed humps.
They were urged to get on with the change, which followed a lengthy public consultation and a vote in favour at the last HATOC meeting in the summer.
Dryden Road was closed to cars during the Covid pandemic with the aim of providing a traffic-free route in and out of the city centre. Supporters say it is safer and less polluted, but campaigners said it had simply moved congestion and fumes to other nearby roads.
The latest HATOC meeting heard pleas to get on with the work quickly.
Speaker Terry Crocker said: “Just pull out the bollards and get the road open again!” And Cllr Neil Stevens (Reform, Alphington and Cowick) added: “We’re just going around in circles.”
City councillor Nick Williams (Reform, Priory) said people had been waiting ‘six long years’.
Ian Frankum, who has led the campaign to re-open the road, told the meeting: “Nobody can reasonably dispute that this provides substantial safety measures for all road users.
“People have waited long enough. It is time to do the right thing, deliver safety measures and demonstrate that the voices of local residents have finally been heard.”
Cllr Lynn Wetenhall (Green, Newtown and St Leonards), however, said it was implausible that there would not be an increase in pollution as a result of re-opening the road.
And Cllr Jack Eade (Green, Heavitree and Whipton Barton) said there were ‘serious safety concerns’ around bringing cars back in.
Committee members voted by nine to four to go ahead.
The Exeter Cycling Campaign, meanwhile, is preparing to make a legal challenge.
In its latest statement it says: “£500,000 to double the length of traffic jams and make a cycle route unsafe? What a waste of public money.”
Campaigners say their legal advisers, funded after an online appeal, will help them to respond with objections.
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