Re-installation of a road safety barrier beneath a railway bridge would compromise safety a district councillor has warned.

A one-way traffic light system was installed on Park Street Lane in 2012 following calls from concerned residents that two lanes of traffic between the footpaths was too much for the narrow space beneath the bridge. As part of that work the safety barriers were removed and the footpaths were widened.

But resident Jon Breen said that the council’s failure to reinstall the safety barrier posed a risk to the parents and children who routinely used the bridge.

He said: “A vehicle could mount the pavement and knock down a pedestrian. Just recently, the traffic lights were out of action and a car was observed mounting the pavement to avoid a head-on collision. Had pedestrians been walking along the pavement, it would have been a police matter.”

But Cllr Aislinn Lee, who is closely monitoring the scheme, said that the installation of a barrier would now be counter productive.

She said: “The integrity of the safety scheme we implemented would be compromised if we were to now put a up a barrier.

“The whole point of re-doing the road in the way that we did was to widen the footpaths and reduce traffic to a single lane - this was all to make travelling beneath the bridge safer for pedestrians and drivers.”

She added that since the scheme was completed three years ago, not a single accident has been reported at the site.

She added: “Nevertheless we will continue to monitor it closely.”