Bollards are a flop in Perth city centre

Sep 26 2008 by Jenny Wood, Perthshire Advertiser Friday

SWEEPING changes to traffic in Perth city centre have hit a real stumbling block – faulty bollards.

An electrical fault with the hi-tech barriers installed on Perth’s High Street has prevented them from rising to their traffic calming challenge and contribute to local road safety.

Installed since August, the automatic bollards have yet to operate to prevent unauthorised access to the pedestrianised zone in the heart of the city.

But despite the setback, Perth and Kinross Council officials have been heartened by inroads the radical shake-up to city centre traffic has made to safety.

A spokeswoman for the local authority said: “We have already noted a drop in the number of motorists accessing the pedestrianised zone as a result of the recent changes made to the area.”

And explaining why the bollards were not yet up and running, she said: “There was an electrical fault with the bollards which has prevented this aspect of the pedestrianised zone coming into operation as planned.

“The fault is in the process of being resolved and it is intended that the bollards will be operational during the next two weeks once technical works are completed and permanent signs are put up,” the official added.

Big changes to traffic flow through the centre of Perth were prompted by a public consultation exercise.

Members of the public had raised concerns about the volume of traffic during the 11am to 4pm period when the High Street was supposed to be restricted to pedestrian use only.

In response, there is in essence now only one entrance for vehicles to the High Street - the Tay Street end - and entry will eventually be controlled by the rising bollards installed between George Street and St John Street.

Traffic lights have been installed at the Scott Street end to control traffic leaving the pedestrianised area.

The revised one-way system has also been extended to the traffic zone along the High Street to Methven Street. Bus services have been re-routed.

And traffic has been excluded from Murray Street, in front of the Playhouse cinema, with the exception of taxis, cycles and vehicles requiring access to premises.