LESS than 24 hours before its second anniversary, Dur-ham's rising bollard claimed its latest victims.

A Transit van driver left his vehicle to pay his £2 toll yesterday morning, became distracted and the van rolled into the bollard.

Kathleen Jude, the operations director of breakdown company Fred Henderson, said: "It was fully loaded, so all the weight was at the back. It might be a write-off."

And then five hours later, a Peugeot 405 car came to grief, damaging its radiator and bonnet -the 137th in the past two years.

The breakdown company, which has dealt with several incidents at the bollard, which regulates traffic along Britain's first modern toll road, gave the device a cake and card, with the message 'Thank you from Fred Henderson and Company for all the work you have created for us'.

The toll road opened on October 1, 2002 -the forerunner of London's congestion charge and the country's first motorway toll road, on the M6.

In cutting congestion on the narrow roads leading to the cathedral and castle, the award-winning scheme has been an undoubted success.

The once traffic-choked streets are virtually car-free.

The number of vehicles on the roads from the Market Place has fallen by 85 per cent, while the number of pedestrians is up 11 per cent.

It has generated £78,000 of profits, of which £60,000 has gone to Durham Shopmobility, the rest to the council's Cathedral Bus service.

A council spokesman said the bollard and paypoint were continually reviewed.

He said: "The vast majority of more than 200,000 drivers who have gone through it have had absolutely no problem whatsoever."

However, there are a minority who do. The first accident happened within 48 hours of it opening, when a van driven by a Bishop Auckland painter and decorator was hit by the rising bollard. It was the first of many.

Hertfordshire driver Nick de Cazenove, whose car suffered £6,500 of damage, said the instructions were unclear and that the red and green lights could not be seen clearly.

Although he supports the toll scheme, Fred Henderson believes the bollard is an unnecessary hazard and should be replaced with cameras to catch payment evaders.

He said: "To be attacked by a piece of local authority equipment is something else.''

The council suggested that many of the accidents were caused by drivers trying to avoid payment and said that over the past two years, 848 people have been caught and ordered to pay a £30 fine.

Belmont parish councillors Ken Holroyd, Walter Meikle and Maurice Leggott, have been lobbying the council to scrap the bollard.

Coun Holroyd said: "What worries us is that accidents are happening to tourists and it will not do the image of the city any good."