CHARFIELD will be counting cars next week as the local authority carries out a traffic survey.

At the request of parish councillors, South Gloucestershire Council will be setting up a traffic-monitoring device in Little Bristol Lane on Tuesday.

The radar, which is attached to a lamppost, will count the number of cars that pass it for one week.

The device can also record traffic speeds, though this is not its intended purpose.

Parish councillors requested the traffic survey after a planning application was received last year, and later refused by South Gloucestershire planning chiefs, for 14 flats to be built along Little Bristol Lane near its junction with Wotton Road.

Charfield Parish Council along with 30 villagers objected to the application.

A main concern for people was the expected increase in traffic near an already busy junction and the effect a lack of parking allocation on the development would have.

Cllr Paul Ashford, chairman of Charfield Parish Council, said: "We thought this would be prudent to do for the expected appeal for the planning application for the flats.

"Traffic volume was not our only but it was one of our main concerns last year."

A traffic survey was last done in Charfield in 2006 and focused on Wotton Road, Charfield's main through road used by many commuters to reach the M5.

That survey showed that in a 12-hour period 8,500 vehicles travelled along the Wotton Road.

Cllr Ashford said: "There should be a way of projecting those figures two years forward to give an estimate for now but unfortunately it would focus on the wrong road, little Bristol Lane is our concern at the moment."

The survey is costing the parish council £125 and the data collected will be used to fight any appeal should one be lodged by Quattro Design Architects Ltd, who were behind the 14 flat development.