Traders and delivery drivers using Oxford's Covered Market have been given permission to flout the city's transport strategy restrictions.

Ten named traders will be able to access the Covered Market by travelling through the barrier in Oriel Square, although they must not make more than 20 trips a day.

The decision to give them the special sanction was taken at a meeting of the multi-agency Oxford Transport Strategy Working Party. Traders will be monitored over a four-month trial period.

When the Oxford Transport Strategy started in 1999 Covered Market traders complained that delivery drivers were finding it difficult to get to the Market Street site because of the closure of High Street to traffic during the day and the pedestrianisation of Cornmarket Street.

Traders claim the OTS has hit profits and caused the closure of a number of shops in the city.

Shopowners in Broad Street in particular have felt particularly aggrieved and have now been promised £75,000 of improvements.

Graham Jones, a spokesman for Rox (Rescue Oxford), had called on the working party to re-think its aims, to ensure that visiting, shopping and doing business in Oxford was a pleasant experience.

He said: "Two butcher's have closed in the Covered Market, one shop is closing in the High Street, another in George Street and several other owners across the city are seriously considering their future.

"More and more people are saying that they avoid coming in to Oxford, whether by bus or by car, because of the delays, high parking charges and overall hassle.

"Most sensible people will realise that they can not carry on with a fortress Oxford approach.

"It is time to turn the situation around, as many other cities have and to have appropriate measures to keep the traffic moving to enable drivers to get to their destinations as quickly as possible."