TRAFFIC-CALMING plans for Hove's Poets Corner have received a mixed response.

Brighton and Hove Council is consulting people about schemes to deter rat-running and reduce accidents.

Lewes-based consultants Owen Williams have produced four options for the area bounded by Portland Road, Sackville Road, Tamworth Road and the railway:

Option 1: Build-outs on the corners of all junctions.

Option 2: Build-outs on opposite corners only.

Option 3: As option 1 but with the road surface also raised at junctions.

Option 4: Partial road closures at the junctions of Westbourne Street with Montgomery Street and Wordsworth Street. Full closures at the junctions of Sackville Road with Coleridge Street, Montgomery Street and Cowper Street.

Other measures could include road humps, chicanes, road narrowing and one-way streets.

But some residents say none of the schemes seem ideal and there are concerns about a further reduction in parking, already cut by the recent introduction of double yellow lines.

Coun Brian Oxley, Tory councillor for Westbourne ward, said options 1 and 2 looked "quite a nice way forward, getting some trees in while slowing the cars down", but option 3 could create noise as cars bounced up and down, while option 4 would benefit some people but grossly inconvenience others.

Gloria Adiba, chairman of Poets Corner Residents' Society, said: "Option 4 looks a bit drastic to me. We want a useful mix of traffic-calming and environmental improvements."

A questionnaire and exhibition of the options will be displayed at the YMCA building, Marmion Road, Hove, from 3pm to 7pm on Thursday and Friday and 10am-3pm on Saturday and the details will also be available in the main foyer at Hove Town Hall from May 24 to 28.

Converted for the new archive on 30 June 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.