A FAULT in the electricity supply is to blame for the lengthy disruption to a city traffic scheme.

Bollards in Angel Street, Worcester, have failed to rise to the occasion since they were installed more than two years ago.

The scheme has been dogged by glitches and engineers have discovered that it is down to the electricity supply.

"We've had an investigation going on for a long time and it proved fruitless so we went back to the basics," said Tom Comerford, senior engineer at Worcester City Council.

"We got in touch with Aquila Networks and they've used sensitive equipment on the mains supply to discover a problem with the amperage and voltage.

"They had carried out a number of tests on the supply, which they assured us was satisfactory.

"It highlighted significant fluctuations in the electricity supply, which resulted in a voltage drop to 12v when a 30 ampere demand is applied. That is when the bollards kick in to operate.

"It means that when the bollards detect a vehicle and they lower, the demand on the electricity supply exceeds the capacity of the system."

He said there was either a fault in the local substation, which serves The Cross area, or along the line.

"It has now been passed on to Aquila Networks' mains specialists and they're going to investigate and resolve the problem," said Mr Comerford.

"Then we can commission the bollards.

"They'll probably do something to boost the output from the substation or put a detector on the cable to find where the fault is.

"Until we know the scale of the works we don't know how long it will be."

Aquila Networks, based in Worcester, said it had carried out some initial tests but further investigations were now needed.