Cameras designed to stop drivers from entering a key area of Liverpool City Centre are still yet to be turned on, the ECHO can reveal.
In 2018, the council's cabinet signed off on plans to introduce a new 'bus gate' on the Ranelagh Street/Hanover Street bus corridor - which was intended to ban cars and private hire taxis from travelling along the busy route and fine those that did.
Under the plans, only buses and Hackney cabs would be allowed to use the route.
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At the time the council said this action was needed because of safety concerns and collisions in the area, as well as to create a more consistent and reliable city centre bus route and reduce congestion.
There have actually been restrictions on vehicles using the route between the Adelphi Hotel and Gradwell Street for decades, but they have never been enforced - so it was decided that the new bus gate, monitored by CCTV cameras, would provide the enforcement needed to keep the area clear.
Two years later in August 2020, the plans came back before the cabinet and the scheme officially came into force in November last year.
In September last year, the ECHO revealed that the cameras had still not been switched on, with the council pointing to a 'number of unforeseen technical issues' for the delay in catching and fining motorists.
The council said at the time that it was hoped that an accreditation from the Vehicle Certification would be granted before the end of 2021 allowing the bus gate to operate fully.
But an emails, seen by the ECHO, show that this process is still ongoing - meaning the bus gate cameras are still not operational.
Sent in December, the email from Traffic Management team leader Ian Wiggins to councillors suggests work is underway to ensure the cameras will be able to operate soon.
But it said it could still be some months before a renewed submission to the Vehicle Certification Agency is assessed and approved.
Once this happens, an existing Experimental Traffic Order will be revoked and a new one implemented that will align with the date that the bus gate becomes operational.
The Order will allow the bus-gate and other changes to be monitored and reviewed for a minimum period of 6 months, and maximum period of 18 months.
Cllr Steve Munby, who has previously criticised the problems that have left the bus gate cameras switched off for so long, said he was satisfied that the council was now doing all it could to get things moving on this project.
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