PLANS to ban traffic from Liverpool’s gay friendly clubland could be delayed for months.

It means the city’s much-hoped-for Gay Village might not be in place until August – even though the plans were rubber-stamped at the beginning of the year, and the council has bought and paid for the equipment needed.

In January, the city decided to permanently close Eberle Street and put night-time bollards at the end of Cumberland Street and Stanley Street for part of the week.

But, although the council has bought the retractable, hydraulic bollards, no work has been done.

The slow progress has led one councillor to brand Liverpool the borough that “can’t get its bollards up”.

Cumberland Street and Stanley Street – home to the likes of the Navy bar, the Superstar Boudoir and The Lisbon – were meant to close between 6pm and 6am, and 10pm and 6am respectively, Thursday to Monday.

During the daytime, the hydraulic bollards would be let down.

One reason behind the delay is that senior councillors are looking into keeping these roads closed seven nights a week, rather than just the four planned at the minute.

To do that, they need to go back to local businesses and residents and re-consult over the plans.

But it remains unclear why Eberle Street, which is home to Garlands, G-Bar and Passion, has not been closed off. It had been hoped the scheme would help encourage a “gay village” to develop that would compete with Manchester’s famous Canal Street district.

Cllr Peter Millea, Liverpool’s executive member for assets and development, pushed to extend the scheme.

He said: “The issue is we’re making it safer for people at night.

“But it was felt that we should really have it seven days per week, so we asked if we could amend it and that requires us to go back out to consultation.”