A Southampton City Council councillor has fought against claims that the Portswood bus gate is 'not working' after a petition to immediately suspend the trial doubled its signatures in 24 hours.

An e-petition led by residents calls for the bus gate to be removed, citing 'major hazards and disruptions' to residential roads as reasoning.

Some 360 people had signed it by the end of the day on February 20, and by February 21, it had already reached over 700 signatures.

Locals like Sam Beard on Facebook say that the 'poor residential roads are absolutely awful' under the new scheme, with Councillor Jeremy Moulton saying the bus gate is 'absolutely not working'.

READ MORE: Hundreds sign petition to 'immediately suspend' bus gate trial

But Councillor Eamonn Keogh, cabinet member for environment and transport, said that early monitoring of the trial shows cyclist and pedestrian movements have increased when compared to the same month in the previous year.

Cllr Keogh said: "Overall traffic volumes have significantly reduced on Portswood Broadway. Bus punctuality in the morning period (07:00-10:00) has improved.

"The evening period (16:00-19:00) early results are mixed with punctuality improvements for the U1, similar performance for Bluestar 20, and reduced punctuality for the U6 and Bluestar 2.

"Outside the bus gate hours, punctuality has decreased compared to the corresponding month the previous year.

"These are early indications, however the data sample is too small to draw any firm conclusions yet."