A YEAR after it was completed Chipping Norton's town centre improvement scheme is still coming under fire.

Many town traders were bitterly opposed to aspects of the £185,000 scheme, completed last August, and they say it has led to a fall in trade for shops in the centre. Some are now backing a challenge to the District Auditor querying the legality of West Oxfordshire District Council and Chipping Norton Town Council's spending on the scheme.

A Hook Norton man, Richard Helyer, acting on behalf of some residents, has written to the auditor challenging the way the first stage of work was financed, partly on the grounds that the district went beyond its powers in spending money on highways, normally a county council responsibility.

But Nigel Roberts, West Oxfordshire's head of legal services, said: "There's absolutely nothing wrong with what the council has done. Everything it has done is entirely lawful." He added: "Every council can arrange to have any of its functions discharged by another council."

Town councillors have praised the enhancements, which were completed in August 1999, but some traders say their fears that the introduction of a one-way system along Topside and the loss of parking spaces would ruin trade have been confirmed.

Roy Cornwall, one of those backing Mr Helyer's efforts, said: "I don't think the view of the shopkeepers in the town has changed in that trade is down overall or struggling to recover. The blame is being laid on the fact that we have a one-way system that does not encourage people to stop short term in the town."

He said there was almost a complete absence of signs showing people how to enter the one-way system on to the Topside parking area. "If you're a total stranger, how are you supposed to know how to get in?"

He added that the confusion had led to an increase in congestion in the town centre, particularly at the junction of New Street and West Street. West Oxfordshire has said better signing will be installed, when the Lowerside improvement scheme is carried out, but this will not start until October at the earliest. Traders also want to see short-term and disabled parking along the Topside pavement, but this has so far been rejected.

Town councillor John Grantham told fellow councillors meeting on Monday that he believed parking along the pavement would lead to the road being clogged if lorries then had to stop in the road to unload.

"It has gradually been accepted by people and I think people are gradually beginning to see that the scheme works quite well. The best thing we can do is leave it alone."