Six weeks of traffic "chaos" are about to be unleashed on Helston, despite the protests of "furious" residents.

A trial involving major changes to the flow of traffic into and from Penzance Road are to begin next Wednesday - although a number of people have spoken to the Packet about their confusion over it all.

Between June 14 and July 26 traffic travelling over St John’s Bridge from Cross Street, towards the main road, will no longer be able to turn right onto Penzance Road. Instead, cars will be forced to turn left and go around the Porthleven roundabout to double back on themselves, if they wish to head to Penzance or Hayle – or take a different route through the town.

At the same time, cars travelling down Sithney Common Hill from the Penzance direction towards Helston will be stopped from turning left onto St John’s Bridge, instead having to find an alternative route to the Water-ma-Trout industrial estate and Redruth road.

During the six-week trial period there will be traffic monitoring both in Cross Street and in other parts of the town, such as Church Street and the town centre, to identify which routes vehicles are taking instead.

However, there are fears that the proposed changes will simply have a knock-on effect in other parts of the town.

David Maddock, who lives at Castle Green, said: "It's going to be chaos."

He also questioned the cost of this process, saying the money would be better spent on filling potholes and social care.

Another resident from the area claimed that residents of the St John's area, Mill Lane and the new housing development off the bridge were "absolutely furious," saying: "Our concerns are just being totally ignored."

She feared the effect on an already "fully packed" St John's Road, which was already only single width due to parked cars, and also questioned how lorries, caravans and other long vehicles would be able to perform a U-turn on the Porthleven Road roundabout in order to get to Penzance.

She added that having spent a "considerable amount of time" on Cross Street and claimed it was only ever busy at the start and end of the school day, and for a half-hour period of "white van drivers wanting to use it as a rat run at 5pm."

"I have sympathy for residents of Cross Street, but forcing their problems on the wider community... It can't be the answer," she said.

Cornwall Council is attempting to find a solution to traffic complaints in Cross Street, where residents say they have experienced years of misery over the speed and amount of cars using the road as a “rat run.”

Cormac, which is carrying out the trial on behalf of the authority, said at the end the results will be looked after before deciding whether to make the changes permanent.

It added that removing traffic from the area would "help improve road safety, particularly for children walking to and from the schools."

However, Mr Maddock pointed out the majority actually walked along Church Street, where more traffic would actually be pushed to, "putting more and more children at risk."

One of the Cornwall councillors for that area, Mike Thomas, has vowed that should the trial begin causing more problems than it resolves he will call for it to be suspended early.

When the trial was first revealed back in March Mr Thomas described it as "crazy" and an "outrageous decision," and yesterday he said his view had not changed.

He feared it would "set residents against residents" and it was not something he would have agreed to had he been the division member then, as in his opinion a 20mph speed limited along Cross Street would resolve the issue better.

However, he accepted that it must now go ahead and he would expect the data to be shared with him afterwards.

Mr Thomas said: "I don't think that it's required but I respect the decision that has been made. We have to go ahead with it and see what happens."