THE ongoing saga with Worcester's bollards scheme has turned into "an embarrassment".

Worcester City Council had hoped the £30,000 scheme would be up and running by now, but three years after work started the Angel Street bollards are still not working.

The manufacturers behind the scheme have now been given until Friday, March 14, to come up with a solution.

"We're very frustrated," said senior engineer Tom Comerford.

"It's the one thing on my desk that I haven't been able to resolve for the two years I have had it. It's an embarrassment.

"We've written to ATG, the manufacturer, outlining the history of this and giving them a deadline to come up with a solution or an option of where we go from here.

"This could include a number of things, such as changing the system and taking away the electricity problem.

Exemption

"We're looking for them to tell us what's available. The last I heard is we could get number plate recognition. The bollards would lower for cars with number plates that are recognised as having exemption to use Angel Street."

The scheme was launched in January 2000 and has met a number of hitches, ranging from the angle of buses turning into Angel Street to a new fleet of ambulances needing readable transponders.

Last year it was hoped that the electricity supply might be at fault, but that has been updated by Aquila Networks and has been found to not be the reason behind the bollards failure.

"We'd like to think ATG is able to come up with a solution," said Mr Comerford.

"To take it out would be the final admission that it doesn't work and will never work. They're not prepared to see that at the moment because they're a big company.

"It's very odd. I'm still of the opinion that there's something in the area that causes problems to computers, telephones and mobiles.

"There's something unique in there and I doubt we'll ever find out what it is because it's intermittent."