The controversial High Street closure trial in St Albans has cost more than £100K, a Freedom of Information request has revealed.

The initial closures have seen George Street shut all week, with High Street only closed at weekends. Market Place, Spencer Street and Upper Dagnall Street are also closed permanently throughout the trial.

The result of the FoI revealed £30,000 was spent on design and consultation fees; £45,000 for signs, gates, road markings and other works; £1,350 for TRO (Traffic Regulation Orders) costs; and £45,000 for monitoring - a total of £121,350.

St Albans resident, David Kaloczi, who put in the request said: "Seeing all these ugly temporary and semi-permanent signs going up around the city centre along with expensive barriers and huge amounts of traffic monitoring kit I was keen to find out how much money was being wasted in causing traffic chaos.

"It seems that St Albans District Council, St Albans Bid and Hertfordshire County Council are all backing the road closures that are causing knock on problems in and around the city centre.

"As you can see Herts County Council alone has wasted £120K to date and this figure will be rising.

"This at a time when many residents are financially struggling, the councils are pleading poverty and they claim not to have the funding for basic maintenance.

"I've been chasing up lights that have not been working for five years and we have pot holes destroying car tyres  every day.

"No doubt our Council Tax will again go up this year as the authorities claim to have no money."

Previously local retailers have spoken to us about the impact on their businesses due to inaccessibility for delivery vans and other commercial vehicles.

The city centre road closures were originally introduced for social distancing post-lockdown.

During the trial the experimental measures will be evaluated and a decision made on whether to make them permanent.

HCC will be using Vivacity sensors in the High Street to anonymously track how people are using the space.

Automatic traffic counts will monitor vehicles along Folly Lane and Catherine Street, as well as speed and volume counts along King Harry Lane, Old London Road, Holywell Hill, Verulam Road, Carlisle Avenue and Waverley Road.

The county council will also monitor car park usage, surveying businesses, along with using Google data to track traffic issues across a wider area, and introduce sensors to assess the air quality in the city.

Herts County Council has been approached for comment but has not yet responded.