A petition has been set up for residents and businesses in Bradford on Avon in support of the town’s Historic Core Zone which includes the removal of the Market Street zebra crossing.

The HCZ aims to rebalance the relationship between motorists and pedestrians.

Phase one, developed by Bradford on Avon Town Council and Wiltshire Council, focuses on the junction at Market Street and Church Street.

The proposals are pavement widening, removal of yellow lines and removal of the zebra crossing to be replaced with five striped courtesy crossings.

The petition set up by Dave and Georgina Knight – who have owned The Olive Tree shop in Market Street since September 2011 – was a response to another petition calling for the zebra crossing to remain.

Mrs Knight said that petition gave misinformation because people did not realise that the striped courtesy crossings would take its place.

She said: “It is completely misleading that people want to save the crossing – but don’t realise what is going in its place.

“The whole reason the HCZ got going was because people didn’t feel safe in the town.”

Godfrey Marks, who helped set up the Save our Zebra petition, said the petition was not against the HCZ, but to keep the zebra crossing within the HCZ.

He said: “We cannot understand how people think that a voluntary courtesy crossing is safer than a zebra crossing.”

The iPetition and paper petition supporting the HCZ has 145 signatures and is available in businesses including Tillions, Fetch and The Swan Hotel.