YORK'S first "intelligent" bollard was today exposed by the Evening Press as a failure.

The automatic rising bollard was installed in Stonebow in 2000 in an effort to prevent unauthorised motorists driving through Stonebow, Pavement and Piccadilly.

It went down only to allow authorised vehicles such as buses and taxis to pass through.

Cabbies could pay a charge for an electronic sensor to make it fall when they approached. New technology was also installed so that specific number plates could be recognised to activate the bollard.

But our inquiries have revealed that in recent months, the bollard has been lowering when any vehicle approaches.

It sank into the ground when our reporter drove up on two different occasions, last week and this week. He reversed away rather than break the rules and cross the bollard, but he then witnessed several ordinary motorists approaching and crossing the bollard before driving towards Pavement.

The technical failure has angered some cabbies who paid the initial fee, but now find that other drivers who did not fork out can go through the bollard.

Independent taxi driver Tony Miller said he had paid £39 for a sensor to go in the front of his car, but he knew that the equipment had been letting anyone through for at least the last eight to ten weeks. "I'm not very happy. They should fix it," he said.

He claimed boy racers were getting to know about the bollard's antics and going through.

David Spence, of Ace Taxis, said: "If the council is going to have an intelligent bollard, they should make sure it functions properly."

A spokeswoman for City of York Council said it was aware there had been some "intermittent problems" with the bollard, which it thought had been caused by problems with the automatic number plate recognition technology.

"We're looking into the problem, but in the meantime would remind people that it is still illegal to drive over the barrier without the correct licence," she said.

Updated: 10:22 Friday, September 10, 2004