Compromise sought by Summernats enthusiasts keen to cruise through Braddon

Car enthusiast Joshua Summers, who has started a Facebook page called Open Lonsdale Street for Summernats, and launched a change.org petition signed by more than 2200 people asking for the street to stay open, met with representatives of police and the government on Thursday.

He said a "glimmer of hope" to come out of the meeting was that the officials would consider closing Lonsdale and Elouera streets at 8pm or 8.30pm instead of 6pm as planned on the Friday and Saturday nights of Summernats, January 5 and 6.

The officials were due to get back to him with an answer by COB Friday.

Mr Summers said that would still allow for a few hours for cars to cruise the streets, a tradition that has continued in Braddon for three decades.

He said the officials were not keen to consider reversing their decision entirely.

"The police said, 'We need to be able to control it' and my point was controlling it doesn't mean shutting it down," he said.

The original decision will see Lonsdale Street between Cooyong and Girrahween streets and Elouera Street between Torrens and Mort streets closed between 6pm and 1am on the busy Summernats weekend.

Traffic marshals would only let in vehicles owned by local residents and businesses. Mr Summers has questioned why those marshals can't simply be made available to monitor the cruise.

Mr Summers agreed police almost each year shut down the cruising in Braddon later in the night . He believed a greater police presence earlier in the evening was justified for such a large community gathering, that may not be scheduled formally but which everyone knew took place every year.

"At the end of the day they say they have finite police resources and it's not an organised event," Mr Summers said.