Traders have criticised council plans to ease traffic congestion in Abingdon.

Oxfordshire County Council has approved changes in Bridge Street in a bid to improve traffic flow.

But the measures have been attacked by traders, who say they are being forced out of business because of delays on the roads.

As reported in last week's Oxford Mail, fears are growing that the town's shopping centre will become a ghost town unless action is taken.

Measures include the removal of a parking space, which will be replaced with two more elsewhere in the street, and the introduction of loading restrictions at the end of Bridge Street.

Traffic signals at Rye Farm Car Park will be relocated 20 metres south of the junction of Bridge Street with East St Helen Street, and will become operational this spring.

A bus stop will also be moved to a lay-by outside the Crown and Thistle Hotel.

Ian Hudspeth, the county council's cabinet member for transport, said: "We aren't happy with the queuing in Bridge Street and I know very well that regular users of the route want something done."

However, Hadrian Welsh, who owns Lansbrough Estates in West St Helen Street, said: "It all seems so disjointed. Why don't they do something simpler?"

Steve King, who employed an independent traffic consultancy to assess the traffic system, said: "It is too little too late.

"We have had 18 months of tinkering and we want them to stop spending any more of our money until they have looked at the review now taking place."