CHEPSTOW'S controversial one-way system is to be scrapped after local traders took the council to task at a public meeting.

Before yesterday the scheme, which only lasted nine days before it was temporarily suspended because of the subsequent gridlocks, was due to be returned after an agreement had been brokered with the Assembly over the re-phasing of a set of traffic-lights on the A48 to fit in with the one-way route.

But county councillor Cliff Meredith, chairman of the Chepstow Regeneration Group, apologised to the public for the mayhem caused by the plan.

Many of the 20 or more traders present at the meeting closed their businesses to attend, and one, Lyn Pring, of St Mary's Street Collectables, brought a petition of more than 500 names of people against bringing back the scheme.

The one-way system was introduced on April 21 as a key element of the town's ongoing £1.7 million regeneration but was abandoned on April 30 after traffic queues spread right through town, bringing it to a halt for more than a week. Many business owners quoted up to a 90 per cent fall in trade that week, and others were forced to make redundancies.

At the time, local council officials blamed the scheme's failure on the fact that the Assembly hadn't authorised the re-phasing of traffic lights on the junction leading on to the A48 where motorists were asked to exit town.

But it later emerged that the Assembly never received a formal request from the council to re-phase the lights.

Mrs Pring told the meeting: "You are trying to force a quart into a pint pot by forcing that volume of traffic into the narrow streets at the bottom of town. Your plan was disastrous for our businesses, our daily lives and tourism. People were desperate to sign my petition."

After the meeting, Mr Meredith took the traders' views back to the regeneration group, which announced immediately it was recommending a permanent return to a two-way system. It also agreed to extend the 15 minutes free parking in Welsh Street car park to 30 minutes.

Jeff Martin, Monmouthshire's corporate director for the environment, attended the meeting and promised an investigation into the causes of the scheme's failure.