A Bridge Too Far ... Away

The old canal bridge leaves the site

Earlier this year residents of Horsell and beyond were horrified to learn that the bridge over the Basingstoke Canal was to close for 9 months.  The old bridge has been removed and a new bridge is being built as part of the World Wildlife Fund (WWF) building on the Brewery Road car park site.

I know residents will be even more upset to now learn it could be a whole year before the new bridge is in place.

I heard rumours just over a week ago about how far behind the project is running.  Quite understandable, given the heavy and persistent rain that delayed work over the summer and beyond.  A previous conversation with the site manager had told me there had been delays but they would be caught up over time.  The bridge wasn't mentioned.

I had to put a formal question to the last meeting of the full Council to get the facts.  The public information supplied tells us the bridge will be open "early in 2013".  i had taken this as January.  In fact at one point I had heard we may get a bridge back in December.  At the council meeting I was told that the bridge will be completed "early" in 2013 and that the contractor will finish within the contract period.  Further questioning then confirmed that the period defined in the contract is April 2013.  Hardly "early" in the year.  

This all makes rather a mockery of the statement posted on Woking Council's website when they listened to "people power" and changed the original bridge plans back in late 2011.

"Once development commences in early 2012, we will work closely with WWF-UK and its contractors to minimise disruption to local residents caused by the construction of the Bedser Bridge."

Massive response to Bedser Bridge Petition

There has been a massive response to the petition calling for the lowering of the height of the Bedser Bridge. The petition, set up by local resident Carole Frost, has been signed by 1875 people.

Over 500 people signed the online petition and a further 1300 signatures were collected by volunteers at the bridge and in Horsell over several week.  I did several Saturday sessions in the car park and found many residents and vistor alike were concerned with the new access plans. 

The petition will now be put to the meeting of Woking Council on Thursday 8 December where it will be open to all councillors to discuss. 

Why not tell your local councillor what yout think of the plans for the bridge, designed for the convenience of WWF but at a cost of £750K to Woking Council.

You can also come along to the meeting which starts at 7pm on Thursday 8 December in the council offices.

A Gold Plated Bridge for Woking?

Woking Council expect to spend up to £1 million pounds on a new bridge between Brewery Road Car Park and the town centre.  This new bridge will replace the wooden bridge which is in a state of disrepair (in my view mainly down to a lack of maintenance by the Council).

Since we learnt that WWF hoped to build a new headquarters on Brewery Road car park questions have been asked about who would pay for a new bridge and how much it would cost.  I have asked on two previous ocassions about the cost of the bridge and received no figure.  Suddenly the Council has told us it will be up to a million pounds!  Do they plan to build a gold plated bridge?

We are told the reason for the high cost is because the bridge will carry services across the canal.  These services could include Combined Heat and Power (CHP) with the pipes to carry heat requiring to be of a signifgicant size. The interesting thing is that WWF are yet to commit to using the CHP service offered by Woking!