REBUILD PONT LLANNERCH/LLANNERCH BRIDGE

Try to imagine one of the main roads leading out of your village, town or city, is closed to your local community.  You have to take a seven-mile detour on other roads to get to your destination.  This would probably be seen as an inconvenience for perhaps up to a couple of weeks.  But in the communities of Tremeirchion, Waen and Trefnant, this “inconvenience” has been happening for nearly five years.

Pont Llannerch, which connected the communities of Tremeirchion, Waen  and Trefnant,  collapsed in January 2021 during Storm Christoph and since then, Denbighshire County Council has been working on proposals to replace the bridge.

But now a design report has revealed the old bridge was above a freshwater aquifer used by Welsh Water to supply drinking water to the area.  Denbighshire County Council says it can’t guarantee the works wouldn’t endanger public health and recommended scrapping the project altogether.

We believe that there are other alternatives to the original design report such as a temporary bridge which could be in use for years.  This bridge won’t affect the aquifer.  This is a robust structure which is a proven design record in other areas. 

The communities locally are suffering

•    Parents who want to enrol their children in Ysgol Tremeirchion which is a Welsh medium school, find that they have a huge detour if they live on the Trefnant side.  The same goes for the Tremeirchion and Waen parents who want their child to go to the Church in Wales School, Ysgol Trefnant, to practice their faith.   
•  The  Nurses and care workers are having to use the seven-mile detour to get to sick and elderly patients.
• Chemists dropping off medication to patients are taking longer.   Ambulances are having to detour to emergency call outs.
• The lack of a bridge not only affects the local communities.  Tourists complain about taking the detour and find the many road signs stating, “Bridge Closed”, confusing. 
• The alternative route, Bach Y Graig Road and the bridge over, Pont Campbell, is now also under threat from overuse and is crumbling. 
•    Looking to the future, the Clwydian Range may become a National Park bringing in many more visitors.  It is vital for the area that there is a robust infrastructure to cope. 

We urge Denbighshire County Council to reconsider their position and explore alternative ways of rebuilding Llannerch Bridge to rejoin our communities together and stop the daily suffering of those who use the bridge as a lifeline. 

Please sign this petition to support our cause which has now lasted nearly five years.