The traffic lights on a busy city centre street have been black since "long before Christmas", according to a Salisbury councillor.

The pelican crossing on Catherine Street, which links Brown Street car park with Old George Mall, is still not working.

Wiltshire Council says it is "investigating" the best solution.

Paul Sample, councillor (Liberal Democrats) for the ward, said the problem has persisted for at least "two months", and that concerns have been raised particularly by people who use wheelchairs.

He said: "This is normally a very busy crossing. It feeds into the Maltings and Catherine Street from Brown Street and Culver Street. It gets very heavy usage.

"It's been out too long, and I think the council needs to draw a line under it and, if they can't get what is required to fix it, they need to move forward quickly on replacing the lights."

The council has apologised for the inconvencience, explaining that the controller is an "old type", and many fixes have been tried.

They say that a new controller would require "more space", which would have a "knock on impact" on space. They are therefore trying to avoid this by replacing the old type with a "refurbished replacement".

Cllr Dr Mark McClelland, Cabinet Member for Transport, said: “We are aware that the Catherine Street signal controlled crossing is not working.

"The controller is an old type, and our contractor has tried unsuccessfully numerous fixes to try to get it working. 

"We are working with our contractors to investigating the best solution.

"A new controller would require more space than the current pedestal type and this would have a knock on impact for access and possibly underground utilities. Therefore, we are trying to avoid this and looking to see if a refurbished replacement can be secure.

"We apologise for any inconvenience that this is causing and are working to get the crossing fixed as quickly as possible.”

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