A TRIAL run of a new layout at busy intersection in Oxford will start this morning.

For the next four days, drivers and cyclists will have to take revised routes at the junction of New Road, Worcester Street and Park End Street.

The experiment comes after Oxfordshire County Council unveiled its latest proposals for the four-way junction of Worcester Street with Hythe Bridge Street and George Street in May.

The Conservative-run authority wants to add turning restrictions and traffic islands, claiming the measures will help ease congestion in the city when the revamped Westgate Centre opens.

The changes are part of a range of measures in the city centre, designed to cope with the proposed ‘experimental’ closure of Queen Street to buses and taxis for 18 months from October.

But it has been warned the plans to overhaul the busy intersection again could be a waste of taxpayers’ money.

It is the second time in three years that significant changes have been made at the Worcester Street junction after it was redesigned in
late 2014 at a cost of £300,000. 

The proposals include a redesign of the junction in which vehicles, apart from buses and bicycles, would be banned from:
 - Turning left from Worcester Street south by the car park into Hythe Bridge Street
 - Turning left from Worcester Street north into George Street
 - Going straight over from one side of Worcester Street to the other. The removal of traffic lights on the Worcester Street/New Road junction and the Speedwell Street/St Aldate’s junction is also proposed, with zebra crossings introduced instead.

There would be new bus stops and layovers in Hythe Bridge Street, Park End Street, High Street, St Aldate’s, Butterwyke Place and Thames Street, plus a taxi rank in Cornmarket.

The plans were consulted on until June 23.