The pedestrianisation of Britannia Corner during the evening weekends with the use of barriers had been a controversial move by North Lincolnshire Council. The whole area is closed off to road traffic from 10pm until 4am on Friday & Saturday nights with the addition of Bank Holiday weekends. Britannia Corner is a busy road intersection in the centre of Scunthorpe, which also has a very active night-time economy, with a number of bars, clubs and food takeaways. There is a lot of pedestrian activity, which, coupled with live traffic, created a number of problems. The way some taxi operators were using the area was also an issue. Many were parking illegally and dangerously, on double yellow lines and on bends, creating a significant road safety problem, which the police were very concerned about. The police tried to enforce the regulations but due to other pressures on their time (public order) they were not able to solve the problem. Many of the offending taxis were from out of town and local taxi operators were becoming very frustrated at these out of town taxis 'queue jumping' by breaking the traffic laws. The local taxi operators were very much in favour of this project, which has greatly improved the situation for them. Like all town centres on weekend nights, there are public order problems. This scheme enables the police to deal with these more effectively. Local night-time businesses, the police and users of the area have also shown overwhelming support for the closure scheme. The gates, according to council documents, cost approximately �27,000, were used for the first time over night across the Easter weekend, of April 2010 closing at 10pm on Good Friday, Easter Saturday and Easter Sunday, after trials before Christmas 2009 using temporary barriers had proved a success. Barrier installation on Deyne Avenue There were four objectives to the scheme To improve road safety To improve the management of public order To improve the management of taxi operations To improve the night-time economy experience for visitors to the area So have the barriers had the desired affect? Council documents go on to show there has been a significant casualty reduction value associated with the project. In the period April 2006 to March 2009 there were 6 casualties in this area, which occurred between 10pm and 4am on Friday and Saturday nights. There were also a significant number of reported �near-misses� between pedestrians and vehicles and they confidently anticipate that this scheme will have saved an average of between 1.5 and 2casualties per year. The scheme has also achieved its other three objectives, as evidenced by feed back from the police, taxi operators, businesses in the area and visitors to the area. Approaching a year on, what are peoples view about the barriers?