AUTOMATIC bollards to help in the battle against congestion and cut illegal traffic are being introduced in York for the first time.

The high-tech system in The Stonebow can be controlled by key highways users such as the emergency services and bus drivers, but it acts as a physical bar to unauthorised motorists who have been using Stonebow and Pavement as a rat run for years.

A new traffic order controlling the flow of cars and other vehicles into The Stonebow from Peasholme Green came into effect last week.

The order makes it illegal for any vehicle other than buses, taxis, cycles and those with special exemptions to travel into Stonebow from Peasholme Green between 8am and 6pm, Monday to Saturday.

It's designed to improve road safety in Pavement as well as reduce delays for city centre buses.

Peter Evely, the council's head of highway regulation, said: "For a very long time motorists have been largely ignoring Traffic Orders in Stonebow and Coppergate and using these roads as a short cut.

"Surveys that we carried out found that more than half the vehicles using Stonebow in the day were just passing through and had no business in any of the streets involved at all.

"This extra traffic is not helping the already-difficult road safety problems and the congestion it causes means that many of our bus services are unable to keep to time."

Mr Evely said the new order was being controlled by standard regulation signs for the present but after an interim period allowing drivers to become aware of the changes, the remote-controlled bollard would be brought into use to physically reduce the volume of traffic trying to use the city centre as a short cut.

He said measures had also been introduced in St Saviourgate to ensure that drivers stopped using this road as a rat run.

"It is sad to think that if the laws which have been in force for well over a decade had been observed by motorists these new measures would not have been necessary and now we are having to introduce a physical block.

"It is to be regretted that a great number of law abiding citizens who have obeyed the law previously will now have to use an alternative route thanks to those who have been flouting the law for years."

In City of York Council's recent consultation over the city's five-year Local Transport Plan residents backed a series of wide-ranging measures designed to make a major impact on congestion levels.

PICTURE: HALT: Alick Doyle, of City of York Council, with one of the high-tech retractable bollards which will soon begin operating in The Stonebow, York

Picture: Steven Bradshaw