A bus-gate bollard in Watford town centre has been deactivated after causing delays.

On December 11 and January 3, bus journeys in the town had to be rerouted to avoid Watford High Street because of an issue with the system intended to allow buses through while blocking other traffic.

It is understood that there had initially been an issue with the automatic number plate recognition (ANPR) cameras not recognising that the bollards should be lowered to let buses pass. However, an individual bollard appeared to also be rising on its own.

Today (January 15), Hertfordshire County Council confirmed that the ANPR cameras are back in operation, so the outer bollards are working again, but it has had to lock down the centre bollard while it awaits a specialist cable fault replacement.

When the bollards, in Clarendon Road, block buses from the High Street they are unable to serve Watford High Street Stop B, outside the former Wilko unit.

Locals wanting to use the 20, 322, 501, W3, or W4 buses to or from the town centre must use the Market Street bus stops instead if this happens.