After £270,000 and 4 years spent on ‘studies’, we are entitled to expect more than sanctimonious platitudes about safety being paramount. What EXACTLY are the safety concerns, now so pressing, after 30 years of relying SO HEAVILY on the bridge’s ‘hidden strengths’?
As far as structural safety is concerned, two independent experts have both reported that the bridge is conservable and can be repaired to meet modern standards. Highways dispute the only one (The Morton Partnership’s) to have actually based their report on their own, rather than Ringway Jacobs’, visual survey. Highways claim that ‘extensive investigations’ would be required to validate Morton’s findings, in other words to confirm that the abutments were fit for purpose. WHY HAVE THESE INVESTIGATIONS NOT BEEN CARRIED OUT ALREADY. They have always been highly relevant to safety. Can Highways not face the prospect that their own approach is completely prejudiced in favour of an unnecessarily expensive, radical solution. When will they be carried out as a matter of URGENCY.
As far as traffic safety is concerned, it is beyond belief that ‘desk studies’ about Fire Engine manoeuvres etc.etc.etc. are being proposed to justify overriding all the AONB and Heritage and community considerations put forward