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

The closure is an 18-month experimental order but new figures from the Highways Agency have shown that the move has cut accidents.

People living near the junction say their communities have been divided by the closure and have called for the gap be re-opened, or for a bridge to be built.

The issue once again came under the spotlight at a North Yorkshire County Council meeting this week. Officers had asked councillors to back plans by the Highways Agency to close the crossing permanently.

But after hearing from villagers, local councillors and a representative from the Highways Agency, county councillors said they were not happy about a permanent closure.

They decided that the agency should be asked to give high priority for funding to provide a bridge over the crossroads and that the committee should continue its formal 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 has stressed that at the moment, the order is only experimental. A spokeswoman said: "We have noted the decisions taken by the North Yorkshire County Council committee. However the experimental order still has over a year to run and we will be looking to try to resolve the council's and other outstanding objections during this period.

"A feasibility study is also looking at whether it will be possible to provide a bridge at the Black Swan junction. This study will be completed shortly."