STRATFORD District Council has conceded that changes have to be made to the newly-pedestrianised Henley Street to stop shoppers falling head over heels, but one councillor fears the changes will not be enough.

The district has been flooded with complaints about the street, which has seen pedestrians falling over the low kerbs and it announced yesterday (Wednesday) that it will be raising part of the road in line with the kerbs in a bid to stop the accidents.

However, Councillor Cyril Bennis - who has been campaigning to have major changes made to the scheme - fears this will not be enough and has demanded more sweeping changes.

Earlier this month the Journal reported how shoppers had been seen falling over in the street - directly below the newspaper offices - which was remodelled to keep cars out in a £200,000 scheme.

Worried shopkeepers said they had seen scores of people falling headlong over the low kerbs, which are difficult to see.

The council received several complaints and is believed to be dealing with some legal claims.

After weeks of consideration, the council has decided to spend £10,000 raising the level of the road by the loading bays and disabled parking areas in a bid to cut the tide of accidents. Work is due to start next month.

Chairman of the council's planning and regulation committee, coun Chris Williams, said the council was sorry that people had fallen over.

He said the council had undertaken lengthy consultations before settling on a final design, but admitted changes were needed.

"New schemes like this often require fine tuning and detailed revisions," he said. "I believe it is important that we take account of people's views, not only in designing the scheme, but also after the scheme comes into operation."

But Coun Bennis said he had real fears that the changes would not be enough. "I am glad they have decided to do something, but it should have happened sooner and I am concerned that we have to wait yet longer to have the work start," he said.

"I want something out there now warning these people that the kerbs are dangerous and then I want the council to change all of the kerbs otherwise people will continue to fall, it will just be concentrated elsewhere."