A main road may have to cope with another 50 buses per hour as part of plans to remove the Archway gyratory.

The Transport for London (TfL) and Islington Council scheme would see six services terminate in Archway Road.

These services currently end at the Vorley Road bus stand, but the council said it has caused pollution and traffic issues for nearby Archway Children’s Centre.

As part of the scheme to rip up the gyratory – changing the one-way system into two-way and making the area more pedestrian and cycle friendly – the authorities want to relocate the bus stands to Archway Road, where 50 buses an hour would U-turn.

The plan has been criticised as merely transferring emissions and noise to another part of the area.

Chris Bailey, 47, of Harberton Road, said: “This is a particular issue for people who live alongside Archway Road, on both sides. Those houses back right into the road. The idea that they would conciously add 50 buses an hour is nuts.

“We were told for ages that removing the gyratory would help improve the area. But Archway Road will be even more polluted as it will basically become a gyratory itself with all the bus U-turns. And how does turning it into a bus park regenerate the area?”

TfL said that by 2020, all single deck buses will be zero emission, while double deck buses will be hybrid.

But Mr Bailey pointed to Boris Johnson’s hybrid bus scheme, after it emerged this year that batteries had malfunctioned on up to 80 of the buses. It meant they were run almost entirely entirely on diesel.

“They quote figures and talk zero emissions, but look at the ‘Boris buses’. There’s just no way that running 50 extra buses an hour won’t result in pollution.”

Alan Bristow, director of road space management at TfL, said: “Following consultation last year, we have continued to work closely with Islington Council and local stakeholders to finalise the detailed designs for the scheme and plan to begin work on delivering these improvements early next year.

“We are aware of the concerns from local residents and will be consulting on changes to the bus network in the area later this year.”

Main construction is expected to begin in March.