MP calls on mayor to end long-running bridge saga

MP Darren Jones has taken the rare step of publicly calling on mayor Marvin Rees to find the cash to finally repair Kingsweston Iron Bridge.

The Bristol North West Labour MP published a letter on Facebook that he sent to the city mayor urging him to end the long-running saga by allocating funds in his revised budget, which is set to be published on Wednesday.

It puts Jones in agreement with Conservative councillors who tried unsuccessfully to secure £1m for the restoration works in their amendment to the Labour mayor’s budget at a full council meeting of Bristol City Council last week.

That was opposed by the Labour group of councillors and Rees, along with some Greens, and fell by 27-22 votes.

But in the letter, which he posted on social media on Monday night, the MP told the mayor: “I know you are aware of my very strongly held views that the ongoing lack of action in repairing the Iron Bridge, which connects Kingsweston House and Blaise Castle, must be rectified.”

https://www.facebook.com/darrenjonesmp/posts/364276358854628

Jones continued: “I continue to be grateful for the time you have taken to listen to my concerns on so many occasions over so many years and I know that you understand my frustration at the lack of progress.

“I have always appreciated the number of priority works you have to resource across the city but after so many years my constituents are understandably at a loss as to why the Iron Bridge has still not been fixed.”

Jones said he was grateful that the council’s cabinet member for transport, Don Alexander, had instructed officers to prioritise the bridge’s redesign which he said had been submitted for planning permission.

“However, a planning consent only is not enough. The funding must also be allocated so that my constituents know the works will be done once the planning consent is awarded,” he wrote.

Residents have been campaigning for years for the bridge to be repaired –  photo: Janet-Marie Gavaghan Poole

The MP asked Rees to reconsider allocating funding for the repairs in his revised proposed budget that will be presented to a second full council meeting on Wednesday, March 2, and that money for the bridge would receive cross-party support.

That meeting is required after the mayor exercised his right to take five working days to consider his next steps following five opposition amendments to his budget agreed at the first meeting – three of which were opposed by him and the Labour group, including the Tory amendment with the bridge repairs.

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Read more: ‘Stalemate’ as mayor postpones decision on budget

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In accompanying comments, Jones posted: “Tory cuts to the council budget make it hard for our mayor to fund everything that we want, but the Iron Bridge in Kingsweston has been waiting for too long.”

He said as an MP he could not tell the council or mayor what to do but that Rees understood the strong feelings about the bridge, which has been shut since 2015 when it was struck by a lorry.

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Bristol deputy mayor Craig Cheney told a city council cabinet meeting in November that detailed plans for the repairs would be brought forward soon. But he added: “Whether we can afford it is another question.”

Since the bridge closed in November 2015, families, ramblers, dog walkers and school pupils have been forced to cross the busy Kings Weston Road.

The main stumbling block over work beginning has been heritage concerns from Historic England over proposals to raise the Grade II-listed structure.

The mayor’s office has been asked to comment on the MP’s letter.

In a written reply to a question by Avonmouth & Lawrence Weston ward Conservative John Geater at the November meeting, Rees said: “Given the amount of pressure on key infrastructure projects that are taking place, this bridge does not currently have a funding commitment or timelines against it.

“I’m sure you will agree that key infrastructure items such as the Chocolate Path, the Sea Walls, sluice repairs, St Philips Causeway, St Anne’s Bridge, Redcliffe Bridge – all of which need urgent repairs – are higher priority.”

The Tories’ budget amendment would have taken £1m from contingencies, such as for project cost overruns and new urgent schemes that crop up over the coming months, to “fully restore, repair and reinstate Kingsweston Iron Bridge”.

Main photo: Claire Coyne

Adam Postans is a local democracy reporter for Bristol

Read more: ‘It’s been five years. Get it fixed’

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