RESIDENTS are having their say on traffic issues in the town centre ahead of tonight's town council meeting.

Bridport Town Council is meeting tonight to discuss the findings of its Access and Movement Study that has been carried out over the past few months.

The report revealed one of the main issues was traffic within the town centre and its key high streets which are becoming 'increasingly gridlocked' in the words of Dave Rickard, the leader of Bridport Town Council.

Among the ideas of Bridport residents are a one-way scheme for South Street, more parking outside of the town centre, park and ride facilities, a new bypass and the building of a multi-storey car park.

Bridport Resident Kelvin Bird said:"It is a difficult subject and there will be a lot of people with different ideas. One thing which doesn't help is the totally inadequate bypass.

"Making south street pedestrianised is also a thought, that will enable traffic to go through town with no traffic controlled lights at town hall with a negative result of limited access to south street.

"There are good and bad reasons to do this. Maybe making south street one way only towards town hall, so no turning from East Street or West Street could be tried."

Resident Rachel Hayball said: "Bridport needs some decent parking on the outskirts of town.

"Traffic isn't too bad in the winter, but with spring and summer comes visitors. These visitors have very few places to park - and most of those places are accessed by driving through town."

Michael Doherty, who lives in the town, said: "Something definitely needs to be done to fix the problem.

"I think they divert traffic to the A35 and keep the roads clear for deliveries.

"The's a lot of towns which don't allow traffic in the centre and have park and ride transports on the outside of town which people can use to travel into the centre.

"The town centre would be a lot nicer without traffic."

One resident advocated for the often proposed idea of the pedestrianisation of South Street.

The idea was considered before, with the town council even running a consultation on a trial closure of the road in 2018. 69 per cent of those that took part in the consultation said they were against the idea.

The resident said: "I think the town centre would much much nicer if it were pedestrianised.

"I think that's the best idea, it would be so nice to be able to sit in Bucky Doo with a coffee and not have to listen to the sound of the traffic."

Former Bridport resident Gary Stoessel, who now resides in North Wales, compared Bridport's situation to where he lives now.

He said: " Fund public transport properly so that people can hop on and off for a quid for that quick trip into town - where I live now there are buses that run into the town centre from 7am until 11pm , seven days a week, that are well used because they are convenient and affordable.

"They could also install proper traffic lights on both sea road roundabouts to ease the flow of traffic and place a weight limit on vehicles wanting to cut through the town centre.

"Bridport is a victim of its own success and needs to plan for the future, which may need some radical long term thinking."

Around 6,000 Bridport residents engaged in the Access and Movement Study, offering up close to 300 individual ideas.

The town council will be meeting via Zoom at 7pm tonight to discuss the findings of the study.