GIANT inflatable slides would stop May Morning revellers hurting themselves at Magdalen Bridge, says one Oxford man.

Writer and illustrator Ted Dewan is proposing attaching aeroplane-style inflatable slides to the bridge, as he claims the current bridge closure spoils people’s enjoyment of the event and fail to prevent jumpers.

And the idea has been given support by Green councillor David Williams.

The bridge has been barricaded on May Day for the past four years after 40 people were injured jumping into 18in of water in 2005.

However, more than a dozen people have been jumping off the 25ft bridge every year once the barricades are removed.

Mr Dewan, 49, of Summertown, is one of the 8,000-strong crowd who turn up annually to listen to choristers sing Hymnus Eucharisticus from Magdalen College’s tower.

He said: “I think any attempt to prevent people from entering the water is doomed.

“The authorities are trying to stop people getting hurt, but sometimes the way to make something safe is to allow it to happen.

“The opinion seems to be jumping is stupid, it’s drunken and it isn’t a real tradition, but there’s a human need to express some kind of mischief.

“May Day is a day traditionally given over to mischief and rebellion and this would be a way of people being involved without having to pay the price of broken flesh.”

Max Mason, owner of the Big Bang restaurant in Jericho, said: “I think it’s a fantastic idea.”

Green city councillor for Iffley Fields David Williams said: “The idea has got some merit.

“I would suggest it’s an idea they should try once, just to see if it works. The slide idea came up in meetings at the Cape of Good Hope and the students all liked it.

“Perhaps some will go on the slide and some will still jump.

“I think the motives of the authorities are excellent but the way it’s worked out over the past few years has proved it isn’t the best way, as the students still jump off.”

Mr Williams suggested the authorities put barriers along the bridge with police stood behind them rather than at either end of the bridge. He also believes the barriers should be manned until traffic starts running across the bridge later in the morning.

A safety advisory group set up after the injuries in 2005 is behind the decision to barricade the bridge until 2011.

The group includes representatives from the police, the city and county councils and the South Central Ambulance Service.

The councils and the police declined to comment on the plan, but a spokesman for the ambulance service said: “A slide into the water would encourage people to jump as well, resulting in serious injury, so no, it’s not a good idea.”