CYCLISTS are continuing to flout a city centre ban - only seven days after police carried out a blitz on riders to improve safety for pedestrians and shoppers.

A total of 223 cyclists were spotted by The Oxford Times riding along pedestrianised Cornmarket Street and Queen Street in just three hours yesterday - more than one a minute.

Last Wednesday, police fined 85 cyclists caught using the pedestrianised area of Oxford city centre.

But without any officers around handing out £30 fines, many cyclists continued to flout the restrictions yesterday.

One rider almost knocked over an elderly man who waved his stick and shouted: "You are not meant to be on here."

Minutes later, a mother, with her child in a trailer behind her bike, got off and pushed only when she spotted an Oxford Mail photographer taking her picture.

One man stopped by The Oxford Times for cycling along Cornmarket gave us the false name of James Bond.

He added: "I'm too fast for the police and do it all the time. I'm not worried about getting fined. I'll just give them a false name and not pay the fine."

Another cyclist who weaved between pedestrians at the top of Cornmarket Street refused to give his name. He said: "There are no police about anyway. No-one is fining me so I'll cycle down here. I'm in a hurry so cycling through here is much quicker."

Meanwhile Ben Tait, 17, who cycled down Cornmarket Street, said: "If I do cycle, I go slowly and in a low gear. If I'm stopped by police, I'll blag it and say I didn't know.

"I don't really care if I get stopped - I don't think they'll fine me."

Between 10.30am and 1.30pm, we spotted 58 cyclists riding in pedestrianised Cornmarket Street. During the same time, 159 were pushing their bikes.

In Queen Street, 165 were seen cycling in the restricted area and 165 walking with their bikes.

City centre police Inspector Richard Brown said: "I am disappointed to learn within a week so many people are still disobeying the no-cycling signs.

"We have a lot of competing demands and these operations are fairly resource intensive and, contrary to popular belief, Thames Valley Police do not get any of the money from any tickets. It goes to the Treasury.

"But we will be looking at doing this type of operation again and, in addition, over the next few months, the city centre should be getting a number of Police Community Support Officers.

"This will be the sort of thing they will be dealing with on a day-to-day basis."

Jean Davies, of the Oxford Pensioners' Action Group, said: "If it's that bad just days afterwards, then the fine should be bigger.

"We can't expect police to be around all the time. They have other things to do.

"Everyone should shout 'pedestrians only' at the cyclist and they will stop it because no-one likes getting shouted at."