Traffic officials are plotting to halt drivers carrying carrying out a dangerous turn on an Oxford hamburger roundabout.

Officers at Oxfordshire County Council are worried about drivers coming along the A40 London Road from the east and cutting through the centre part of the Green Road “hamburger” to turn right into Barton.

While Rodney Rose, the cabinet member in charge of transport, said it was not illegal, it was dangerous.

Council officials are now putting in place a traffic order that would make it illegal to carry out the manoeuvre, forcing motorists wanting to go into Bayswater Road to use the outer roads of the roundabout.

They hope police would then enforce the new ban and fine motorists flouting it.

Owen Morton, county council spokesman, said: “Performing a right-turn at this location is self-evidently dangerous.

“We’ve been made aware of a number of instances of motorists attempting such a manoeuvre and decided to reinforce the message with signage.”

But Yvonne Lowe, chairman of Risinghurst and Sandhills Parish Council, is concerned about the roundabout because of its current layout and the volume of traffic which uses it.

She said: “As far as I am concerned it seems that every so many years someone tries to change that roundabout.

“I think the roundabout is absolutely absurd and an accident waiting to happen because you have got problems with people coming from Barton, which is an awful turning.

“There has got to be an easier solution.”

County councillor Rodney Rose, cabinet member for transport said: “The hamburger roundabout has proven itself no end as long as people use it properly.

“What we are trying to do is give total legal coverage so police and magistrates can enforce this offence.”

The county council is consulting on the change and any objections can be sent to the authority’s director for environment and economy Huw Jones.

The roundabout is one of two hamburger roundabouts in Oxford – so-called because of the road running straight through the middle of them.

It was the first such roundabout to be created in Oxfordshire, being completed in November 2006. Heyford Hill was completed last autumn.