UPDATED 4PM

PRESSURE is being put on council chiefs to ban vehicles from Worcester's pedestrianised streets for longer - one year after the tragic death of a woman crushed under a lorry.

Councillor Joy Squires, the deputy leader of Worcester's Labour group, has called for action to finally be taken 12 months after Sylvia Russell's death.

Back in February council bosses agreed to investigate making the city more safe for pedestrians after Miss Russell, aged 69, was horrifically crushed to death in The Shambles.

But eight months on from that vow nothing has happened - despite Councillor Squires doing her own revealing poll suggesting 70 per cent of residents want change.

At the moment vehicles such as delivery lorries are barred from the city's key pedestrianised areas from 10.30am to 4.30pm, but around that time there are no restrictions.

This afternoon the county council told your Worcester News it had done "some observations and taken pedestrian counts", but it is refusing to take matters any further until the current court case is over.

We can also reveal how officers have been asked to compare Worcester city centre's current pedestrian-only hours to other shopping centres with a similar profile, to see how they do things.

But nothing will happen until the spring of 2016.

Councillor Squires says the city is having to wait too far long for change.

Speaking during a full city council meeting last night, she said: "It is now a year since the tragic death of Sylvia Russell in The Shambles in Worcester and nearly a year since the county council agreed to this council's request to undertake a safety review of pedestrianised areas of Worcester, including looking at vehicle access times."

She then asked Councillor Simon Geraghty, the leader, to give them clarity on what progress has been made.

The Conservative called the death "tragic" and told her the previous managing director Duncan Sharkey had written to Worcestershire County Council about it.

The stance at County Hall is that it wants the current legal proceedings to conclude first to avoid potentially prejudicing a trial.

Councillor Squires said: "I do fully understand nothing should prejudice a fair judicial process.

"But we've got plans to refurbish The Shambles, bin collections are being privatised which would impact on trade waste collections, there's all sorts of things going on which will implicate The Shambles in some sort of way.

"Do you not agree it's really urgent to get on top of this and put pedestrian safety much higher up the agenda?"

Councillor Geraghty, who is also the deputy leader at County Hall, insisted that the county council wished to "take on board the findings" of the court case before concluding their review.

"We all want to make sure that review take place and that we have a satisfactory outcome," he said.

This evening a county council spokesman said: "We have undertaken some observations and taken pedestrian counts, plus a review of the hours of prohibition in other towns.

"However there is still a police prosecution pending and we are unable to make any recommendations until this has concluded."

* We reported yesterday how Nathan Beauchamp, aged 36, of Churchill Grove, Tewkesbury, will stand trial after denying causing Miss Russell's death.

He was granted unconditional bail and a five day trial is scheduled to start on March 7, 2016.

Miss Russell, of Dent Close, Worcester, died on Monday, September 29 last year near to the Argos entrance.