Oxford's faulty rising bollards to be fixed within months, council says

Oxford Pedestrians Association is protesting at the lack of working rising bollards on Oriel Square

Faulty traffic equipment at a site where people have protested as "human bollards" will take two to three months to fix, a council has said.

Oxford Pedestrians Association (OXPA) members have blocked drivers passing through Oxford's Oriel Square because of the lack of working rising bollards.

Oxfordshire County Council said the fault had been identified and repairs could now take place.

Campaigners said they would continue to block the road until the bollards work.

Regular traffic is prohibited from driving through the square in the city centre between 07:30 and 18:30.

But OXPA said about 70 vehicles attempted to use the route over the course of an hour in April, when three campaigners at the scene obstructed drivers.

Regular traffic is prohibited from driving through Oriel Square between 07:30 and 18:30

They said they were abused, threatened and driven at during the protest.

The group has since drawn up a rota for members to "continue to be bollards" at "random times and days".

OXPA claims the bollards and traffic cameras have been broken for four years, and that drivers know they will not be stopped or fined.

Oxfordshire County Council confirmed the cause of the problem was there was not enough available internet bandwidth for the bollards to work.

It said: "Now we know what the problem is, we anticipate the bollards should be working properly again in two to three months."

It added: "In the meantime, motorists must obey all signs and refrain from driving into prohibited areas at specified times. Failure to do so could result in enforcement by the police."

A spokeswoman for OXPA said: "We are hopeful that the council will follow through and fix them so we do not have to continue giving up our own time to highlight this issue, but until the bollards are functional we will continue our 'being a bollard' campaign."

John Howson, the Liberal Democrat councillor for St Margaret's, said he had been chasing the council to remedy the issue for two years.

He said he "looked forward to a speedy resolution to the problem, as all these barriers are important for safety reasons".