AMBITIOUS plans to redevelop Barrow Gurney's former hospital have been put on hold - to allow a detailed road safety audit to be carried out. Councillors deferred making a decision on whether to allow developers Del Piero to build 24,000sq metres of offic

AMBITIOUS plans to redevelop Barrow Gurney's former hospital have been put on hold - to allow a detailed road safety audit to be carried out.Councillors deferred making a decision on whether to allow developers Del Piero to build 24,000sq metres of offices, homes and leisure facilities on the site to allow a full traffic audit to be carried out. The decision, which went against the advice of planners and highways chiefs who were recommending the scheme be approved, came after councillors raised concerns about the extra traffic the development would create in the already congested village.Residents in Barrow Gurney have been campaigning for years for a bypass to solve the traffic gridlock through the village.The development at the hospital would see an estimated further 3,000 cars travel through narrow Wild Country Lane each day.Barrow Gurney Parish Council chairman Geoff Coombes said: "The traffic audit is something which should be been done at the start of this process. However, we welcome the fact that it is being done at this stage."Our concern is that this development, together with the proposed airport expansion, will just compound the poor traffic situation on our roads. We are not against development taking place on this site but the implications of the project need to be looked at in advance."Backwell councillor Tom Collinson, who brought the application to the committee for discussion, said he was glad members had stood firm in their call for a traffic audit.Councillor Collinson said: "This report will give us an opportunity to take a proper look at the traffic movement figures projected as part of this development."There could be thousands of cars coming into the village via Wild Country Lane, which is extremely narrow."This could cause total gridlock and it is obvious that we cannot sustain traffic levels of this kind on the existing road network."The former Barrow Hospital, which was built in 1937, was sold last June and plans to turn the 200-acre site into a mixed development of offices, leisure facilities and houses announced. Outline permission for a mixed use scheme of offices, homes and leisure facilities on the site was granted in 2005.The outline permission stated the development could not exceed a total footprint of 11,000sq metres, but no limit was put on the total floor space of the development.