A RISING bollard looks set to be introduced to deal with congestion in a York village.

Councillors agreed last night to let officers investigate introducing an "intelligent bollard" to manage traffic in the Heslington area.

The bollard, aimed at closing Heslington Lane near Goodricke College to all motorists except local residents, has emerged as the preferred option to minimise the congestion likely to be caused by the proposed extension to the University of York campus.

Other suggestions to manage the area's traffic included introducing a toll in Heslington Lane, closing Heslington Lane completely, and doing nothing.

In a public consultation exercise, 54 per cent of residents who completed the questionnaire opted for the intelligent bollard option.

Peter Evely, City of York Council's head of network management, said some addresses had been accidentally left out of the consultation, but the exercise had only been intended to give the council an idea of which option they should investigate further.

But not everyone was behind the scheme, which would allow residents, buses and emergency vehicles to operate the bollard using a small credit card sized device.

Coun Christian Vassie said he was not convinced such a drastic measure needed to be taken in Heslington.

"It seems to me a special case is being made where there isn't a special case," he said.

"Lawrence Street has a much higher flow of through traffic. In the future, I will require more convincing that there is reason to restrict parts of the public highway at the whim of residents."

He told the meeting of city transport chiefs that he understood the concerns of residents, but that the problems experienced in Heslington were the same on most of the main roads in York.

Transport officers will now investigate the scheme further and report back to councillors.

Meanwhile, measures are to be introduced to improve safety on a busy York road after hundreds of residents signed a petition - but their plea for a pedestrian crossing was turned down.

The council received a 360-signature petition calling for the crossing near shops in Broadway, Fulford.

But councillors last night decided there were not enough pedestrians using the road to justify a controlled crossing.

However, the council has agreed to design a range of minor measures to improve road safety for pedestrians in the area. The scheme is expected to cost around £10,000.

Updated: 13:50 Thursday, June 03, 2004