A FLAGSHIP scheme to drive traffic from a York residential street has been dropped after it failed to gather sufficient support.

The proposal to create a "home zone" in Harcourt Street, Heworth, was the first to be put forward in the city and earned praise from Government Minister Baroness Jay when she visited York earlier this year.

But the pilot scheme, which would have involved banning all traffic but residents' cars from a stretch of the road, has been abandoned following a ballot of households in the street.

Peter Evely, City of York Council's head of highway regulation, said they needed 60 per cent of residents to be in favour of the idea for the proposals to go ahead. But only 57 per cent of eligible households voted for the home zone, and 58 per cent for the road closure.

"We have kept to our word and not moved," added Mr Evely. "We have not proceeded because all the way along it has been a residents-driven thing."

He stressed that the council started working on the home zone and highway experiments in the area because it was approached by local residents following a piece about the scheme in its newspaper The Citizen.

But he was personally disappointed that the Harcourt Street pilot had not gone ahead.

"I thought we had a good scheme, and one that stood a good chance of demonstrating to the rest of the city how good the home zone could be for the local community," he said.

Part of the street was closed for several weeks as a temporary experiment.

But local businessman Gerard Dyson collected a petition with more than 700 names against the proposals.

Resident Margaret Drury, who had called for a ballot on the issue, said: "I'm very relieved and thankful that it isn't happening.

"I was increasingly unhappy with the whole idea as time went on, and I'm very pleased that it's no longer happening."