A £52,000 bollard is set to be installed in pedestrianised High Street after complaints the change has failed to keep out motorists.

It will be up from 10am to 4.30pm and some will have a swipe card to lower it and use High Street, from Watts Way to Oxford Road.

Cherwell District Council pedestrianised it in April last year to tackle “constant traffic movements and indiscriminate parking”.

But it relied on drivers obeying a notice and Thames Valley Police to hand out £30 spot fines to enforce the regulations.

Cherwell has now agreed to fund a bollard by Barclays Bank, at the start of the pedestrianised section, on request from Kidlington Parish Council.

Parish council chairman David Betts said: “People ignore the one-way street, they drive down both ways.

“It is a complete joke and the public think it is a complete fiasco and they are quite right.

He added: “Cherwell District Council convinced us that it would work and we went along with that and raised reservations about that. Within a month of opening we said ‘this is not going to work’.”

Mr Betts said: “The police do not have the time and resources to stand in the middle of the street all the time and I wouldn’t want them to.”

Access will be for people with off-street parking, he said, adding: “There is ample car parking in Kidlington.”

The bollard will cost more than £52,000 and its annual £3,000 running costs will be shared with the parish council.

It is not known when it will be installed as it has to be agreed by Oxfordshire County Council, the highways authority.

Traders gave a mixed reaction. Robert Windle, of Robert’s Discount said: “It has not worked because it has not been policed. It has not been given a chance. On market days it is absolute chaos.”

A bollard would be “brilliant” he said and allow more market stalls in the street, including a new monthly produce market.

The new market was a “waste of time” as it was off High Street, he said, a view shared by David Bartlett, of Bartletts butchers.

But he was concerned a bollard would put off disabled customers and cause problems with deliveries, which currently stop outside.

Mr Bartlett said: “If the delivery man has to walk an extra 100, 150 yards, I do think that is a serious health and safety issue.”

Janette Taylor, of Oxford Building Supplies, said: “We are all against it.

“There are not the shops down here for it. People drive down here, pick up stuff and go.”

Deputy Cherwell leader George Reynolds said: “We have to take the advice of the parish council.

“Once the bollard is working we shall see how effective it is.”

The police and county council have yet to comment.

Anyone who has exemption certificates, registered postal operators and emergency vehicles can use the street.