Traders affected by traffic changes have won their fight for access through a barrier.

Covered Market workers who deliver perishable goods say journey times from the city centre to east Oxford take too long since the city's transport strategy was introduced last year, when vehicles were banned from the High Street.

Now council chiefs have agreed to give them accesss through the Oriel Square barrier for a trial period.

Councillor Jean Fooks, chairman of Oxford City Council's highways committee, said: "The traders say it takes them longer to go via Longwall, or South Parks Road."

County and city councils have opposed the idea in the past, but now the OTS Working Party has decided to allow the trial, involving ten traders.

The scheme is likely to run from September to February, when officers monitoring the impact of the trial will report back to the working party. Cllr Fooks said: "We want to check whether it will mean an unacceptable increase of traffic in Merton Street. We will monitor it very carefully."

In return, traders have suggested they will not criticise the OTS and could now consider opening on Sundays.

Alan Lester, chairman of the Covered Market Tenants' Association, said: "Of course we welcome this move.

"We're also glad that officers have listened to us.

"We only ever asked for a trial to see if this could work and I think they realised that you can never improve anything unless you're willing to listen to ideas and give them a go."