The petition, organised by Bellshill man John Devlin and former councillor Joe Gorman, was lodged with the council, in August and called for changes to traffic flow and the provision of public transport to be reconsidered before any further work is undertaken.

Organisers said the petition showed the depth of opposition to the council's revamp of the Main Street area which, over the past 18 months, has attracted a barrage of criticism.

Critics of the multi-million pound streetscape programme say it has had a detrimental effect on traffic flow in and around the town centre and created significant loss of trade for town centre businesses.

But a report to the council's planning and transportation committee last week said that the best option for the council was to complete the Action Plan and then monitor the operation of the road network to make sure it was managed effectively.

In the report Graham Mackay, the council's head of roads and transportation, said agreeing to the petitioners' request would have serious implications and delay the regeneration of Bellshill.

He said: "The petitioners' concerns fail to recognise the inevitable disruption caused by North Lanarkshire Council's multi-million pound investment in the regeneration of Bellshill town centre.

"The comments and claims are based on their perception of a part-completed scheme and are of a subjective nature.

Mr Devlin said: "After totally ignoring the existence of our petition our elected 'representatives' have once again shown utter contempt for the hundreds of people of Belllshill who signed it by not even advising us the matter was to be discussed at this committee meeting."

Full story in December 17 edition of Times & Speaker