The government road agency will be forced to remove hundreds of tonnes of concrete it uses to bury a Victorian archway, although it is offering a sweetener worth £ 450,000 to allow the controversial scheme to remain.
The Eden County Planning Committee opposed the proposal, unanimously deciding to refuse permission for retrospective planning of the National Highways (NH) for a raw filling project in Great Musgrave, Cumbria, which was widely condemned as “cultural vandalism”.
Widespread dissatisfaction with last year’s scheme has led to a state-ordered pause in the agency’s plans to fill or demolish dozens of other historic railway bridges elsewhere in the UK.
The planning committee’s decision means the agency will have to cancel a project that sank the arch of the 1862 bridge near Kirkby Stephen to 1,644 tonnes of gravel and concrete for £ 124,000. The council said it would now hand NH a message for compulsory execution to restore the bridge to its previous condition.
Victorian Bridge at Great Musgrave before and after filled with concrete and aggregates from the Government Road Agency Victorian Bridge at Great Musgrave, Cumbria before and after filled with concrete and aggregates from the Government Road Agency
The decision comes after the council received more than 900 objections to the scheme and only two in support. This marked a victory for activists who argued that the bridge was structurally strong and required only cheap diversion repairs to be safe. They also say filling the bridge over an abandoned railway line will thwart plans to reconnect two heritage railways in the Eden Valley.
In a recent proposal, to try to avoid the inconvenience and estimate of the cost of removing the £ 431,000 filling, NH offered to fund £ 450,000 to repair other structures on another section of an abandoned railway line near Great Musgrave if the concrete fill is allowed to stay.
The head of NH’s real estate program for historic railways, Hélène Rossiter, told the commission that if it approved the application, NH would limit the money that would be spent on removing the filling to improve other legacy structures in the Eden Valley.
She also argued that the filling of the Great Musgrave Bridge was necessary to make it safe, and said it could be removed if viable use of the obsolete line under the bridge could be found.
The money offer was supported by David Pemberton, director of Railway Paths, the charity that owns the structures and will be the main beneficiary of the donation. Pemberton said the money would help reopen a seven-mile unused runway north between Warcop and Appleby.
But committee members followed the advice of their planning staff, who in a report last week recommended that the planning permission be refused.
In a report, Fergus McMorrow, the council’s assistant director of development, said the NH’s filling had “caused significant damage to the visual appearance of the bridge” and “failed to complement or improve the area or protect features or features of local significance”.
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Graham Bickerdike, a member of the HRE Group, which works to preserve the historic railroad mansion, has spoken out against the application.
Regarding the £ 450,000 bid for nearby structures, he told the committee: “Issues related to other local railway assets are clearly not relevant to this annex”.
After the decision, he said: “Obviously we are satisfied.”
“Under its new approach to the management of historic railways, NH is committed to submitting planning applications for all filling schemes. Since this was rejected, we expect the company to respect the outcome of the democratic process and remove the 1,600 tons of aggregates and concrete.
“National highways need to recognize the strength of the feeling on this issue and its many negative impacts. Concerns are expressed about the company’s behavior and the reputational damage caused to the profession of civil engineer. They have to do the right thing, but they don’t seem to understand the concept
“Surely everyone already realizes that a line must be drawn under this sad saga; the only way to do this is to allow the Great Musgrave Bridge to resume its role as a valuable heritage asset with a potentially useful future.
After the decision, Rositter said: “We respect the decision of the Eden County Council regarding our application for planning to keep the works at Great Musgrave and we will not appeal.
“We have heard feedback on this and changed our processes earlier this year to ensure that full planning permission is sought before doing similar work in the future.
“Also, we will no longer consider filling any structures as part of our future plans, unless there is absolutely no alternative.
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