MAY Morning revellers will be faced with barricades and road closures at Oxford’s Magdalen Bridge for at least the next three years to stop people jumping off it into the River Cherwell.

The bridge has been fenced off for the past three years after 40 people were injured and 12 needed hospital treatment after jumping in 2005.

The decision has upset residents and faith groups from East Oxford, who said they felt excluded from the annual May Morning celebrations, as they could not cross the bridge to join in.

However, the police, ambulance service and city and county councils have now said the policy would remain in place for another three years before they reviewed it again.

Ian Travers Smith, of the county council’s emergency planning team, said: “We came to an agreement to run this policy for a period of three years and that lapsed last year.

“The decision has been made to continue with that for another three years, when we’ll review it again.”

Imam Monawar Hussain, of Oxford Central Mosque, said: “I’m very disappointed. This is a physical way of excluding quite a substantial number of Oxford citizens.

“Three years is a long time. I think we should have a review of this again as soon as possible – and it should be open for the people of East Oxford to have their say.”

Every year at sunrise on May 1, thousands of people gather at the bridge to hear choirsters sing Hymnus Eucharisticus from Magdalen College tower.

Organisers claimed East Oxford residents could still enjoy the event if they were across the bridge by 5am.

Last year, the authorities said the official re-opening time would be 8.30am, but police removed the barriers at about 6.30am, when four young men jumped off the bridge. No-one was injured.

This year, the closure will officially end at 7.30am.

However, despite last year’s incident, organisers said they planned to have the bridge re-opened before 7am.

Insp Jim O’Ryan, who will co-ordinate the event, said: “This is about striking a balance between people that want to go about their day-to-day activities and those that want to jump off a bridge.

“Oxford is a city of 150,000 people and the number we’re talking about jumping off a bridge is a handful.

“Non-closure of the bridge isn’t an option. We have to look back at 2005 and the stretch on public services caused, which was great, and whether people can potentially lose the services, with quite serious consequences.”

The Home Bursar of Magdalen College, Mark Blandford Baker, said it was a myth that jumping from the bridge was a long-standing tradition.

He said: “This kind of thing has only been going on for the past 20 to 30 years.

“The ancient tradition is the gathering of thousands of well-behaved people to hear the choir at dawn – it has nothing to do with bridge jumping.”

The event will cost the city and county councils around £7,000. The city council bears the majority of that, with £3,500 being spent on barriers.

They said the cost would remain the same whether the bridge was open or closed.