Work to improve pavements and bollards in Royston town centre will get under way next month, but one unhappy resident says that more needs to be done to protect pedestrians.

Royston’s county councillor Fiona Hill told last week’s meeting of the Save Royston Town Centre campaign that funding was in place to upgrade the pavements and replace damaged bollards. The work is scheduled to take place in October.

But Raymond Dowding believes other areas of the High Street also need improving.

He said: “The north end of the High Street is an accident waiting to happen. When vans park on the pavement there’s nowhere for pedestrians to walk safely.

“It’s good that the repairs are being carried out, but they are only replacing things which are broken. More needs to be done.”

Mr Dowding, of Coltsworth Drive, has been in touch with Councillor Hill, as well as MP Oliver Heald, calling for action.

Mr Heald said: “Fiona Hill and I went down there with a highways engineer to check out the problems. The repairs are being made next month, but I understand Mr Dowding wants some extra improvements.

“Councillor Hill has written to him asking what he would like to see, and she will try to fund anything appropriate from her highways locality budget.”

The Save Royston Town Centre meeting was the latest in a series of gatherings organised by Clive Porter looking at ways to improve Royston’s offering to consumers.

Also on the agenda were the impending cuts to subsidised bus services.

As reported in the Crow, two routes serving Royston, the number 16 Royston town centre service and the 331, which runs from Royston to Hertford, could be affected by the changes.

The meeting heard from guest speaker Guy Brigden, a transport planning officer from Herts County Council, who said it was “inevitable” that services would have to be reduced due to the lack of resources at County Hall.

A discussion also took place on the possibility of providing more street entertainment in Royston.

Mr Porter said “When I was chairman of the Retailers Association in Saffron Walden I organised a quantity of this type of entertainment. We had face painting, jugglers, musicians and competitions.

“The public wanted to come into Saffron each week to see what was happening. These activities could be emulated in Royston.”