HAVERHILL — South Prospect Street will remain one-way.

Last night, the City Council voted 6-3 against opening the residential street in Bradford to traffic in both directions. Several people who live on the street attended the meeting, with Alan Peters, of 23 S. Prospect St., acting as spokesman.

Peters said when the street was two-way, there were "a lot of accidents," but that's no longer the case.

City Councilor Robert Scatamacchia, who requested the discussion about South Prospect, said he "didn't want to turn it into a turf war."

"If you live on the north side of South Main Street, you have a different point of view," he said. South Prospect is on the north side of South Main Street, also known as Route 125.

For drivers headed north on Kingsbury Avenue, making a left or right turn on South Main — because they can't go straight and continue on South Prospect — can be dangerous, especially when the sun gets in their eyes, Scatmacchia said.

People living on the south side of South Main Street have been asking him, "When are they going to open up South Prospect Street to two-way traffic?"

Furthermore, Scatamacchia said he could not remember two-way traffic being a problem on South Prospect when it was permitted.

While many people have said the street became one-way when work began on the Comeau Bridge, others have pointed out the Cogswell School, at South Prospect and Main streets, was a factor. School buses, plus the two-way traffic on South Prospect, caused a lot of congestion.

The city closed Cogswell in 2002, but the street remained one-way.

"It is much safer for the people in the neighborhood," Peters told the councilors.

"Should we make every street like yours one-way?" asked City Councilor William Ryan. Peters said he could not speak for residents of other streets.

City Councilor David Hall, a retired police sergeant, said, "Things changed dramatically when the street became one-way."

City Councilor Mary Ellen Daly O'Brien said she had recently visited a friend on South Prospect and "there's barely room for a firetruck to get by."

City Councilor James Donahue said making the street two-way would get some traffic off Route 125.

Ryan made a motion to ask the Planning Department for its input on whether South Prospect should resume two-way status. Voting with him were Donahue and Scatamacchia. Opposed were City Council President Michael Hart, Daly O'Brien, Hall and city councilors Kenneth Quimby, Michael McGonagle and William Macek.

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