BOLLARDS have now been placed around Tavistock Pannier Market to reduce the amount of vehicles that drive through the area. The decision to erect the metal posts came last week when members of Tavistock Town Council?s town hall and market sub-committee heard of the risks to people walking around the perimeter of the market. Wayne Southall, works superintendent, told councillors there had been several near misses around the market and something needed to be done before a ?nasty? accident occured. He said health and safety guidelines clearly showed that the law required vehicles and pedestrians to be kept separate at all times. He said: ?By law, every workplace should keep vehicles and pedestrians separate and to keep entrances clear so pedestrians? safety is not threatened. ?Even if we govern the speed it still won?t stop kids running out in front of the cars. There is no way to catch speeding cars, even if you stand on guard.? Mr Southall showed photographic proof of people parking illegally, and reversing round blind corners. Town clerk Roger Howard said: ?It is unacceptable to mix pedestrians and vehicles ? the law is against it and it states that we must separate them.? Market reeve Eddie Carruthers said that over the last five years the market had changed and complaints about people driving around the perimeter had grown. The council voted in favour of the bollards due to concerns of being liable if they ignore the health and safety issue. Bollards were placed at both the entrances to the market on Market Street last Wednesday morning and will be locked in place between 9am to 4pm from Tuesday to Saturday. But traders have differing views on the issue. Mark Balsdon, of Parade Plants, on an outside stall at the west end of the market, said: ?I am all in favour of pedestrianisation, the reasons being customer safety. In the last four years I have traded, there have been up to 50 occasions I have had to slow down certain drivers.? Another trader under the collonade at the east end of the market said: ?Over the past three and a half years of trading on the outskirts of the pannier market I have witnessed many near misses involving vehicles and pedestrians. ?Although stopping traffic driving through the market would have an effect on my work I feel the sacrifice would be worth not having members of the public run over!? But the owner of Duke?s coffee shop and takeaway, Lisa Hair, said she had been trading in the pannier market for over 18 years and was upset that she had not been consulted. ?I have an outside catering business and at the very best it will be difficult to run my business properly if I cannot park outside the premises,? she said. ?Sometimes I deliver two buffet lunches a day and when it is chucking down with rain I cannot walk half a mile with a tray of sandwiches covered in cling film. ?I go out to get bread and fresh cooked chickens and it?s heavy stuff to carry back and forwards. It would be lovely to pedestrianise the pannier market but it is just not workable.? Mrs Hair said it was herself, Country Cheeses and the butchers who would be most affected. Butcher Simon Downing said the family firm supplied quite a lot of catering establishments, schools and colleges and needed access at all times to make deliveries once orders were prepared. ?I know some traders are for pedestrianisation because of the safety issue but surely carrying heavy meat through the market is not practical,? he said.