Jobs hopes collapse as bridge plan fails

Written by Emma Downes and published in Buxton Advertiser on Sat 19th Jun 2010

The narrow bridge which is the only route into the Bingswood Industrial Estate, Whaley Bridge.

Plans for vital access to unlock land on industrial estate are abandoned. A TOWN'S regeneration hopes have been dealt a hammer blow after plans for a new bridge were abandoned. The proposed bridge over the River Goyt, pushed for by local councillors for over 12 years, was intended to provide a more suitable access to Whaley Bridge's Bingswood Industrial Estate.

The development would have prevented lorries from having to negotiate a tight, almost 360 degree turn, in the centre of the town, would have allowed the site to expand and create new jobs, improve the quality of life for residents and allowed the canal basin to be regenerated.

However High Peak Borough Council, who led the project, had no choice but to abandon the scheme after United Utilities decided at the 11th hour it wanted £1 million pounds for a piece of land needed for the development - destroying the whole funding package that had been in place.

A heavy lorry from the Bingswood Industrial Estate struggles on the narrow lanes leading from the site.

Councillor Tony Kemp, HPBC Executive member for Regeneration, said the council and partner organisations had committed considerable funds and officer time to make it a reality.

"Now, when we were within a whisker of success in resolving all the difficult funding issues all our plans have been shattered. After many years of suggestions from United Utilities that they would also co-operate in either gifting the remaining strip of land (to unlock value in other land they own) or selling it at a reasonable price, it took us completely by surprise when they recently came back and demanded such an inflated value," said Cllr Kemp.

High Peak MP Andrew Bingham said: "This is a devastating blow to everyone; the residents of Whaley Bridge, the Town Council and High Peak Borough Council, all of whom have worked incredibly hard over many years to try and deliver the much -needed bridge."

He is to call for an urgent meeting with United Utilities over the Whaley Bridge project and two others in the High Peak.

"I will not stand by and let them ride rough-shod over the people of the High Peak." said Mr Bingham.

Whaley Town and Borough Liberal Democrat Councillor Linda Leather, also Chairman of Whaley Bridge Regeneration Partnership said: "In my opinion it is only by the grace of God that we have not had a fatality on that corner and I hope to God that I am proved wrong and we never have. But this money is now gone and from what we were told there is no sight of funding for a long time to come."

She praised the efforts and hard work put in by a team at HPBC led by Mike Morris.

Liberal Democrat Cllr David Lomax said: "Now we are left with the prospect of no bridge, possibly losing the industrial estate and possibly losing a large number of jobs.

"There is really no way forward that I can see at the moment. The prospect of public money to fund the bridge, wherever it might have come from, has gone."

Cllr Leather said: "I am sorry for the residents of Whaley Bridge, the people who work in Whaley, the businesses that could have started on that industrial estate and those that could have grown."