Villagers are up in arms over a 13-week road closure which they say will split the community in half and lead to massive diversions.
National Highways won the road closure to remove 1,600 tonnes of stone and concrete which it had put in to “secure” the 161-year-old railway bridge at Great Musgrave, Kirkby Stephen.
In 2021, the bridge was controversially infilled by National Highways using permitted development rights as an emergency measure, amid its safety concerns about the weight of vehicles using it, according to the Government-owned company.
But a retrospective planning application to keep the works was rejected in June last year by Eden Council, which saw National Highways served with an enforcement notice to undo the works.
That project is now due to start on 17th July and involves excavating the material beneath the bridge’s arch.
National Highways have applied for a three-month road closure of the B6259 — which crosses the structure — to ensure safety for contractors.
But local opponents have complained that the closure splits the village in half, will lead to massive detours for residents, and have questioned whether workers will truly need to be on-site for the duration of the closure.
Previously, the parish council and heritage railway groups have complained of “no consultation” by National Highways before the controversial infilling took place.
Locals are also aggrieved that they were not informed about the road closure until signs for it appeared last week.
Tim Wells, who chairs Musgrave Parish Council, said: “It’s absolutely ridiculous — have they learned nothing? Yet again, there’s been no dialogue with the community directly affected by their actions. How can National Highways not understand the impact this closure will have on villages served by this crucial road?
“Several farms have property on both sides of the bridge — they need to use it every day. There’s a produce seller who will lose most of their passing trade. Are they going to be compensated?
“The school bus won’t be able to cross, so what are the children going to do? And then there are people who need to get to work and do their shopping.
“The bridge is about 30 yards long. If you’re in a small vehicle that can use the lane heading north from Great Musgrave, the diversion from one end of the bridge to the other is almost five miles. But for a bigger farm machine, at best you’re looking at more than seven miles going via Brough, and that assumes it will fit under the low bridge at Warcop. What they’re planning to impose is unacceptable.”
National Highways have previously argued that the bridge has a “low heritage value” and that a county council survey in 1998 showed that the bridge can only cope with loads of up to 17 tonnes, and that the authority had not introduced a weight restriction.
A spokesperson for National Highways explained that there had been safety concerns about the bridge’s use ahead of the infill works.
It said “Our contractors will work as quickly and as sensitively as they can. We can understand that having the road closures in place overnight outside of the working hours of 8am until 6pm might seem unnecessary, but the bridge cannot be used safely once work has begun.
“Workers will be on site throughout the 13-week period of closures. Among the reasons for closing the road was for the safety of users of large vehicles such as farm machinery and buses, as Great Musgrave bridge currently does not have the capacity for such traffic.”
