Work to repair a broken footbridge has finally been given planning permission but construction won’t start until almost a decade after it closed. Kingsweston Iron Bridge will be dismantled, repaired and installed at a raised height to avoid being hit by yet another lorry.
The 19th-century bridge was shut by Bristol City Council in 2015, leaving walkers cut off from Kings Weston Estate and Blaise Castle Estate in northwest Bristol, after a lorry crashed into it. Then in 2018, a second lorry also collided with the bridge, causing even more damage.
Once fixed, the bridge will be installed one metre higher than it used to be, meaning new steps must be added which means it won’t be wheelchair accessible. But progress was still welcomed at the council’s development control A committee, on Wednesday, December 21.
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Local resident Janet Poole said: “People in Bristol are tired of waiting for this much loved bridge to be repaired and reopened. We understand that the plans aren’t perfect, it’s not going to suit everyone and isn’t going to be accessible for everyone. But at this stage of the game we just want the bridge repaired.
“We are really tired, we are fed up, we feel neglected, we feel forgotten and we just do not know what else to do. We have protested, we have been on the news, we have been on the radio, we have done everything we can. It took three years to build the Titanic, two years to build the Mall at Cribbs Causeway — seven years and we’ve done nothing.”
Even though planning permission has now been granted for the works, construction isn’t due to start until 2024, according to the mayor, nine years since it was first closed. Responding to a question in a member forum on December 13, Marvin Rees said fixing the Kingsweston Iron Bridge was a “passion project for local people” and the council had other priorities.
Mr Rees said: “While we recognise it’s a passion project for some local people, it is not a key infrastructure project for Bristol and I would hope councillors would be honest about prioritising in a time of financial pressures. It is expected [work] will start in the financial year 2023–24 as resources allow, with construction works commencing in 2024.”
New steps will be needed so the bridge can be raised in order to avoid similar accidents with lorries, but these will make the bridge inaccessible to people using wheelchairs. Planning officers said the large size of a ramp needed to make the listed bridge wheelchair accessible would harm the historic heritage of the structure, which was important for conservation.
Writing to the development control committee, David Redgewell, a local transport campaigner, said: “This scheme discriminates against disabled people, and mothers and fathers with buggies. The alternative is to cross a very busy Kings Weston Road. We would ask the city council to relook at the design of the bridge.”
But defending the current plans, Councillor Don Alexander, cabinet member for transport, said: “Any negative impact on this much-loved asset will be far outweighed by the fact that it will be permanently raised and safe from any further bridge strikes.”
