JOHNNIE Cope's Road will remain open and could be improved in the future, after councillors voted against its proposed closure at a meeting today.

The decision at the meeting of East Lothian Council comes on the back of public outcry about the proposed closure of a road used by more than a thousand motorists each day.

An East Lothian Council survey found that 1,156 vehicles used the road on an average weekday.

The road, which crosses the A1 and connects Prestonpans and Tranent, faced closure after council officials revived a plan from 1986 to see it shut to all motorised traffic bar residents and emergency vehicles.

Prestonpans Community Council has led the charge in opposing its closure, criticising the local authority’s claim that the road’s bridge over the A1 was not safe.

A public consultation was published at the start of the year, allowing residents to have their views on the proposed closure, which would have seen the road converted into an active travel route.

Councillors were presented with results of the public consultation, which showed that only five of the 152 respondents favoured the proposal, the vast majority wishing to see the road remain open.

Councillor Norman Hampshire, council leader, brought forward a motion on behalf of the Labour administration calling for the road to remain open and calling on officers to find a way to improve it while halting the redetermination order.

At the meeting, Mr Hampshire admitted that the situation was "not ideal" but stressed that finding a way that included road resurfacing, traffic calming measures and the potential of traffic lights would be preferable to outright closure.

This motion was then merged with a motion previously lodged by councillors Lachlan Bruce and Jeremy Findlay on behalf of the Conservative Group for councillors to vote on.

Councillors voted 19 to one in favour of the amendment, with Green councillor Shona McIntosh being the only representative to vote against the amendment.

She accused her council colleagues of "running scared of a motorist lobby" and described the decision of councillors as a "failure".

However, Brooke Ritchie (Labour), ward councillor for Preston Seton Gosford, was happy to support the view of locals, stressing that "this road is important to our community".

Lee-Anne Menzies (SNP), ward councillor for Tranent, Wallyford and Macmerry, also supported the amendment but suggested the possibility of a future consultation that might present more positive alternatives for the road.

She admitted that most of the Tranent-based councillors had "taken a 180 on this", having previously shown support for the closure.

However, she added: "The people of Tranent don't seem so against the closure." She suggested that the majority of objections came from the "Pans ward".