Trenport, the company that is constructing the 1,000-home Peters Village development at Wouldham, has been given a petition signed by 602 residents demanding the closure of Hall Road to vehicular traffic.

The petition was handed over by parish councillor Tim Fulwell to company director Chris Hall at a meeting of the parish council on Tuesday.

Campaigners say the signatures represent more than half the adult population of the village.

Trenport intends to open up Hall Road as a “greenlink” between Peters Village and the existing village, but campaigners argue that it would create a rat-run bringing excessive traffic onto Wouldham’s narrow High Street.

Resident Gill Goode said: “This petition proves that the majority of Wouldham residents want Hall Road/the Greenway shut to vehicular traffic.

“Tonbridge and Malling planning officers, KCC, our MP and Trenport have been consistently misled over the years on the level of support in Wouldham for the road to be open to traffic.”

Trenport already has planning permission for the road and it would require a change of heart from the company for it not to go ahead.

Mrs Goode said: “With such overwhelming local support, we hope the firm will give it serious consideration.”

Mr Hall said: “We note the petition, but remain convinced that the current transport scheme for the Peters Village and new Medway Crossing development is in the best interests of the wider local community overall - existing and future residents alike.

“It was designed, proposed and accepted nearly a decade ago after painstaking consultation with Tonbridge and Mallling Borough Council, Kent County Council and the Highways Agency, together with amenity groups such as the Ramblers’ Association and British Horse Society.

“Hall Road’s closure now would remove an important leg from the overall transport strategy. The traffic would inevitably be redirected elsewhere on the road network causing additional pressures for other communities in the valley.”

Mr Hall said: “The petition’s 600 or so signatories represent just over a third of Wouldham’s 1,500 population (2011 census), but we have to be mindful of the traffic needs of all the valley’s residents.”

Mr Hall said Trenport recognised the danger that Wouldham’s “fragile” traffic arrangements would be overloaded by vehicles taking advantage of the new river crossing.

Mr Hall said: “This is why we made successful proposals to upgrade Hall Road into the Greenway, an environmentally superior routeway with ‘smart’ traffic lights giving faster access from Wouldham to the new bridge than offered in the reverse direction, thus deterring use of Wouldham High Street as a ‘rat run’ to other points north east of the new Medway crossing.”

He added the company was also funding improved bus services which would have priority at the traffic lights.

The company’s planning consent requires that it builds no more than 500 homes in Peters Village before the Greenway is opened, but the firm said it was planning to open it ahead of that point.