National Highways is under pressure over four more controversial bridge infills which were carried out to historic structures before the infamous Great Musgrave fallout.
image: for illustration – image: By RuthAS – Own work, CC BY-SA 4.0
… infillings have ‘questionable legal status’…
New Civil Engineer writes:
…. Campaigners claim that National Highways failed to obtain relevant planning consents for work on four historic bridges which were infilled using emergency powers between January 2019 and May 2021. National Highways disputes the claims and believes it does have the necessary consents for the infillings….
The HRE Group – an alliance of engineers, sustainable transport advocates and greenway developers – claims that the infillings have ‘questionable legal status’ and is urging the four respective local authorities to assess whether National Highways should be ordered to reverse the work.
If the councils do issue enforcement orders for the infills to be removed, costs are likely to run into the millions.
The four bridges (and the respective local authorities) are:
- Rudgate Road Bridge (Selby District Council)
- Wellinditch Bridge (Maldon District Council)
- Benton Road (London Borough of Redbridge)
- Congham Road Bridge (King’s Lynn and West Norfolk Borough Council)…
How the Great Musgrave bridge infilling saga played out
National Highways Historical Railways Estate first hit the news at the start of 2021, after a group of transport campaigners and engineers wrote to the Department for Transport (DfT) to warn them that hundreds of historic railway bridges and tunnels faced infill and demolition under National Highways plans.
With no intervention from the DfT, National Highways continued with its plans and the infilling of Great Musgrave bridge was complete in June 2021…
….Eden District Council voted unanimously against National Highways retrospective planning application in June and last month issued an enforcement order for the infill to be removed…
