COUNCIL bosses have come under fire over failures to keep retractable traffic bollards in a pedestrianised town centre shopping street in safe working order.

The traffic management devices in Church Street, Blackburn were repaired in June after having been out of service for three months, during which there were a number of ‘near misses’ and small accidents.

The day before the work had been carried out a delivery van and a Volkswagen Safira collided where the main bollards near the market should have kept them apart.

Within 48 hours the bollards were taken out of service again over fears they might rise under a vehicle passing over them.

Now specialist contractors ATG Access has been called back to to repair the Church Street retractable bollards and another set on Fleming Square, all of which have suffered similar problems since March.

Cllr John Slater, leader of the council Conservative group, said: "Obviously we don't want the bollards rising under vehicles and damaging them but you would think they would have noticed this problem in June and got this repair done properly first time around.

"These bollards are important to the safety of people using this pedestrianised area.

"It is another example of the incompetence of Blackburn with Darwen Council which had three months to sort this out."

Tony Duckworth, president of Blackburn and District Chamber of Commerce, said: "You would have thought the council could have done this repair properly in the first place.

"Church Street is a pedestrianised area and these retractable bollards are needed to keep shoppers safe from vehicles that should not be using it as a highway."

Blackburn with Darwen regeneration boss Phil Riley said: "The repairs were done in June and tested.

"It became clear that there was a potential problem with them rising below vehicles going over them.

"Safety is clearly paramount and they were taken out of service.

"The induction detector loops were worn out due to age and needed replacing.

"New parts have been ordered and the contractors commissioned to replace them."

The problem was made worse as in June the service entrance to The Mall shopping centre on Church Street was closed to deliveries and vehicles were using the bollard free Church Street as short cut to the alternative entrance on Ainsworth Street.