CYCLISTS were overjoyed today after an order which banned them from York city centre streets on Thursday nights was withdrawn.

City of York Council highway chiefs have decided to remove an extended pedestrian order, which banned traffic from the foot streets until 8pm on Thursday evenings.

The extension was part of the city's late-night shopping initiative and was implemented on a trial basis.

But it was criticised by cyclists who found they were unable to ride home through parts of the city centre and caused "severe inconvenience".

Last month, the traffic order was removed for five weeks to assess the difference for shoppers with and without the restrictions, as well as monitoring the impact on residents and businesses.

Following that period, the authority has decided that allowing traffic into the area actually made little difference.

That has pleased representatives of the York branch of the Cyclists Touring Club (CTC), who had lobbied the Liberal Democrat ruling group for a change.

Peter Evely, the council's head of network management, said: "When late-night shopping started, our first priority was the safety of shoppers and we decided to extend the pedestrianisation hours for a trial period until we had assessed the impact of late-opening. As part of the experiment, we removed the temporary traffic order last month and monitored the affect on the shopping environment.

"We found that allowing traffic into the footstreets made little difference and actually made it easier for shoppers, residents and businesses. We have therefore decided not to continue with extended pedestrianisation."

Paul Hepworth, secretary of the York CTC, said: "We are very pleased that the new Liberal Democrat administration has taken on board the advice contained in the National Cycling Strategy about cycle and pedestrian mix in town centres. This will certainly remove the very severe impact which the original experiment had on home-going cycling commuters."

The restrictions will come into force again in the run-up to Christmas when, as in previous years, Thursday late-night shopping numbers are expected to be considerably higher than at other times.

Updated: 09:58 Thursday, July 24, 2003