Bigger bollards could be in the pipeline to protect an iconic Marlow landmark from overweight vehicles amid claims the current ones are “not working”.

More “robust” bollards were installed at Marlow Bridge last October, with Transport for Bucks (TfB) removing the old bell-shaped ones and putting in larger ones on both approaches to the bridge, in a bid to prevent a repeat of scenes from 2016 when a lorry driver ignored the three-tonne weight limit and drove over it, forcing it to close for two months.

But the new bollards, which were revealed by the Marlow Free Press to have cost taxpayers £110,000, were slammed by residents as being “too far apart” despite TfB’s promises that they were designed to be “much more difficult” for HGVs to get through.

Speaking at a meeting of the Marlow Chamber of Trade and Commerce on Monday, district and county councillor for Marlow Alex Collingwood said the council was considering putting in bigger bollards and bringing their width in as well.

He said: “The bollards are stopping the big, big lorries but what they are not doing is stopping the 7.5 tonnes and that was why they were put in in the first place.

“There are also still a large number of residents who are clearly overweight [driving over with overweight vehicles] – Marlovians themselves are misusing it.

“It’s part of a longer scheme. The idea, in the long run, is to get ANPR and to raise the limit to four tonnes.

“If it goes to four tonnes, all the local residents with SUVs will be able to go through but a Luton van will get done and get fined straightaway.”

The bollards were proposed by Bucks County Council as a trial to see if vehicles like Luton vans and 7.5 tonne lorries could be prevented from using the bridge as a shortcut to the A404 Marlow Bypass.

Cllr Collingwood said the Department for Transport needed to know that Bucks County Council had done “everything it can” to “change the outcome”, including putting in two different sets of bollards.

Chamber treasurer Rod Braybrooke said it was “awful” that the bollards “caused disruption” when they were being installed last year and were “still wrong”.

He said: “We had a consultation, which was supposed to solve the problem – which it hasn’t.

“Who is responsible for the error in putting the new bollards in?

“They are not doing the job because someone put in wrong bollards. They are not working.”

Cllr Collingwood said it was not an error, adding that the public was shown what the new bollards were going to look like at an exhibition in September last year, after which, around 85 per cent of Marlovians reportedly said they were happy with the designs.

He said: “All we wanted to do was make a difference. We tried something, it didn’t work. It’s better than doing nothing.

“People want change and we are giving it to them.”