County Council body has no respect for heritage on our highways
Essex Highways refuse to recognise the heritage of Boxted bridge which has stood since 1897 on a single lane across the River Stour in the heart of the beautiful Dedham Vale Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty. In fact they are applying to demolish it. They don’t need to do this. Their own Heritage Assessment recommended restoring the bridge, because of its historic importance and setting in the AONB. Another study recommends replacing only the deck, for the same reasons.
But Essex Highways are now strangely intent on spending over £1m of taxpayers’ money and closing the bridge for over a year. And yet for the last 29 years they have ignored it; 27 of those, allowing it to be used by HGV’s, despite their own inspector’s 3 ton recommended weight limit. And they argue: their ‘nuclear option’ is best because it’s safest. They have ignored their own and other specialist reports. They have also ignored the law that tries to protect AONBs from inappropriate development.
Residents and the Parish Council fear that a much larger bridge will encourage HGVs to use the bridge as a short cut, and normal traffic will cross much faster, making it less safe.
All three approach roads to the bridge are single track. All of them have substandard bridges on them, yet Essex Highways have no plans to address these.
They claim fire engines and refuse trucks cannot safely manoeuvre over the bridge, but local people see with their own eyes, fire engines and refuse trucks safely crossing the bridge with no difficulty, which they have been doing for years.
This nuclear option for a big, brand-new bridge with a viewing platform in the middle of a protected rural area is truly the expert ‘solution to which there is no problem’.
The Save our Bridge petition has more than 5882 signatures. This shows the strength of feeling: love for the bridge and anger at being ignored. Throughout all of 2021 Boxted Parish Council repeatedly asked to at least be shown Essex Highways’ plans: but nothing was forthcoming until November when the planning application was ready to go.
The Parish Council asked for a better explanation for the decision to demolish the bridge. They were told by Highways that the decision was not minuted.
Highways promised to apply for planning consent to Colchester Borough where the bridge is on the local list of heritage assets and is familiar to Councillors. Then, when objections became serious, they switched their application to Chelmsford where the bridge and the AONB are not so well known.
If they push this through it will show that so-called public servants don’t need to worry too much about the laws intended to protect our heritage and areas of beauty, or about our local Councillors’ and MP’s power to influence their decisions.
A link to the planning application will be found on Essex Highways Boxted Bridge webpage on submission date 26 th November.
SOB will shortly post advice on the most effective ways to object but meanwhile please share this press release as widely as possible.
Save our Bridge (S.O.B.)
Contact: lucinda@douglas-menzies.com