TRAFFIC chiefs are pressing ahead with plans to close one of York's busiest junctions.

Historic Walmgate Bar will be closed to all vehicles except bicycles in an attempt to preserve the well-known monument.

Members of City of York Council's transport and planning advisory panel agreed last night to make an experimental traffic regulation order, which will see the scheme implemented.

The changes, which are expected to be introduced in August, will then be reviewed after six months, and if the scheme has been successful it could become permanent.

At the moment traffic travelling into Walmgate from Lawrence Street passes under the Bar, while traffic travelling out of the city passes under the city walls.

The order will see traffic from both directions take it in turns to use the current outbound lane under the city walls.

The three-lane approach to Walmgate Bar from Lawrence Street will be reduced to two lanes. A traffic island will be created in the current central lane to stop it being used by motorists.

According to council officers, this will cause a nine-second delay to each vehicle during peak times.

The scheme was condemned by John Thornton, owner of Castle Cars, a taxi firm based in Lawrence Street.

He said: "It's going to be absolute bedlam. York can't cope with its traffic as it is, this is going to make it even worse."

Peter Edwards, First's commercial manager, said the bus company would work with the council to minimise delays to the bus services, which travel along that route.

He said: "We will work with them to try and make the most of the situation. We appreciate the historic importance of Walmgate Bar and we wouldn't want to see it destroyed."

The councillors voted to back the change due to fears that vehicles would cause further damage to the Bar and could cause the Elizabethan house within it to collapse.

In November the Grade I listed gateway was closed for almost a week after a truck driver misjudged the height and his vehicle became wedged underneath, causing £15,000-worth of damage.

Peter Evely, the council's head of network management, said the truck had come within 30 cm of causing substantial damage, which could have caused the arch or the Elizabethan house above the arch to become unstable.

In the last seven years, nine vehicles have collided with the bar.

Mr Evely said the experimental order allowed the council to try out a scheme that they were not 100 per cent certain would be a success.

He said if the scheme did cause problems, councillors could vote for it to be abandoned and the Bar would be re-opened to traffic.

Updated: 10:52 Thursday, June 03, 2004