Calls were today made for changes to Welshpool’s controversial one-way system after claims it has decimated trade in the town.

Businesses have urged council chiefs carrying out a review into the one-way system to return Brook Street back to two-way traffic in a bid to save town centre retailers.

The call comes as traders in the town reported a drop in sales, with national chain M&Co saying it had experienced a 25 per cent drop in customers and a “devastation of sales” since the system opened.

Powys County Council is currently reviewing the town’s one-way system, which was opened in February.

A petition with more than 1,000 signatures has been handed in to Welshpool Town Council from a local shopkeeper who has led a people’s protest against the one-way system.

The petition, submitted by John Burns, who works at the County Goldsmiths on Church Street, calls for a number of changes to the system, which many businesses claim has decimated town centre trade.

The petition calls for Brook Street to return to two-way traffic and requests for the Broad Street one-way system to continue towards town, past the Green Dragon and down to the Raven roundabout.

Mr Burns has previously claimed that many business have been left struggling.

Robert Robinson, town clerk, said: “The petition was considered and it was decided to forward Mr Burns’s suggestions to Powys County Council so they can be considered as part of their review in the autumn.”

Meanwhile, Iain McGeoch, group chairman of M&Co said the company had seen sales “devastated”.

He said: “I am very concerned at the dramatic impact that changes to the road system is having upon trade. This upheaval has pulled trade away from the town centre to Tesco and the design seems to have been done to benefit Tesco at the expense of the existing stores.”

Welshpool Town Council will also submit a number of its own concerns about the system to the review.