Cold water on bridge bid

Calls for a footbridge over the River Severn are a dead duck, a councillor has claimed. Councillor Stephen Clee said there was no money available to build a new footbridge, despite calls for action to separate pedestrians from traffic.

In the Conservative newsletter, he said of the bridge campaign at Bewdley: "Worcestershire County Council currently has to find £25million worth of savings from their £460million budget, let alone spending money on an idea that is not even contained in the authority's Local Transport Plan.

"Local historians and Civic Society members who have contacted Bewdley councillors about this crazy scheme can rest assured it does not have the support of any Bewdley Conservative district and county councillors, and it will never happen," said Councillor Clee, a member of Wyre Forest District Council and Worcestershire County Council.

His comments follow members of Bewdley Town Council saying they were writing to the two authorities and other agencies for support for the scheme.

They are concerned about increasing amounts of traffic pouring into the town over Bewdley Bridge and the risks this poses to pedestrians walking along the narrow pavements.

Recently, a man was taken to hospital after being struck by the wing mirror of a vehicle as he walked over the historic bridge. When town councillors asked residents for their views about the proposed footbridge, 64 per cent of the people in the town who replied were in favour of the plans.

Councillor Liz Davies has said the people of Bewdley had been given chance to have their say. "Everybody said there was a danger on the bridge. We had 132 people respond. Sometimes when you do these things you may only get one or two responses so we were very pleased. We were amazed at the detail of the responses with some people writing two or three pages," Councillor Davies added.

Any plan for a footbridge would have to be approved by the county council.