CAMPAIGNERS determined to banish new bollards from a busy Acomb shopping street have launched a ‘let’s get rid of them’ petition.

Dozens of bollards have been installed along either side of a section of Front Street in Acomb as part of a regeneration project.

The work began at the end of January this year - costing £395,000. However, the results have been branded "disastrous" by some residents and businesses.

More than 1,200 Acomb people who responded to a City of York Council consultation in 2021 over how they wanted the shopping area to improve asked for the street to be opened up with new seating, more trees, and level paving to make it more accessible.

But members of the ‘What a load of Bollards’ campaign say that what they have got instead is ‘two walls of 136 multiple steel bollards and the removal of cycle parking’.

“It’s not just horrible to look at, it’s destroying local businesses, is a nightmare for the elderly and disabled and it would have been far better if they had simply left things as they were,” said campaigner Zeina Chapman.

She said the council claimed the bollards were there to protect new paving stones from parked cars.

“But traffic is not allowed down here during the day and no one can ever remember them parking on the pavements anyway,” she said.

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Meanwhile, the campaigners say some businesses are reporting losses as shoppers struggle with the ‘horrible’ new developments.

“We’ve seen a serious dip in sales, it’s heartbreaking,” said Cat’s Protection shop manager, Mattie Bradshaw.

“People look down the street at these huge rows of bollards and it puts them off wanting to walk down here - it’s just so unappealing.

“We’ve put up with weeks of noise and mess from the workmen and now all we’re left with is this wall of bollards.”

A “Let’s Get Rid of Them” petition has now been launched at change.org/whataloadofbollards – at time of writing it had attracted almost 200 signatories.

The city council says the bollards are part of improvements to Acomb's Front Street using UK Shared Prosperity Funds that were approved by the Executive Director for Place last November.

"The funding will enable the replacement of bollards, paving and drainage, improvements to signage and the provision of a new traffic gate," a council spokesperson said.

“The previous cycle racks have not been removed permanently and we hope to trial new accessible benches and cycle racks in the future."

But ward councillor Katie Lomas says she has found a “catalogue” of safety issues “and appalling errors” with the new scheme.

“It’s ruined any chance of making the improvements that local people asked for in the consultation and is a scandalous waste of the high street regeneration money,” she says. “The excuse that the bollards are there to protect the pavement is nonsense - bike parking, trees and benches could easily have been used to protect it instead of the bollards.”

To sign the petition, visit change.org/whataloadofbollards