CAR-OWNERS face being banned from Edinburgh’s Princes Street in less than a year’s time as part of a major traffic shake-up of the city centre, The Scotsman has learned.

Private vehicles are expected to be prohibited from the gardens side of Princes Street from next May – nine years after they were removed from the shops side.

The ban is among a wide-ranging series of traffic restrictions, affecting nearly 40 streets, to cut pollution and accidents and improve the ambience of Edinburgh’s retail heart.

The £2.7 million central Edinburgh traffic management scheme will start next January and is expected to be completed by July, in time for the Edinburgh Festival the following month.

The measures do not officially come into force until October 2005. However, to avoid confusion, the city council said they will effectively start as soon as temporary traffic restrictions are introduced to enable construction to begin.

The Princes Street car ban will restrict the westbound carriageway to buses, taxis and cycles between Waverley Bridge and South Charlotte Street.

However, the ban will only operate from 7am to 8pm daily, because the council’s plans for 24-hour operation were rejected at a public inquiry last year.

The round-the-clock car ban on the eastbound carriageway will remain.

The council said yesterday there was a “clear need” to build on the success of the 1996 measure, which had cut road accident injuries by half.

A spokesman said: “Pedestrians, cyclists and taxis have benefited from a better allocation of the available space. Priority for buses has been provided where it is most needed and this has contributed to improvements in the reliability of services.”

However, motoring groups said roads on to which traffic would be diverted, such as Queen Street, would be unable to cope.

Opposition councillors also condemned the plans as simply creating more congestion.

Allan Jackson, the Conservatives’ transport spokesman, said the scheme would simply produce congestion to justify the council’s planned congestion charge.

The measures also include closing the junction of Princes Street and South St David Street, beside Jenners, with two-way traffic sharing South St Andrew Street into St Andrew Square.

The Princes Street/Frederick Street junction will also be shut, with traffic accessing the western half of George Street through a re-opened junction at North Castle Street and Queen Street. Bollards will prevent traffic crossing the George Street/Frederick Street junction between 10:30am and 11pm daily.