Health officials struggle in bid to make bridge safe

around the country, but said our area was one of the only ones still using paper-based records that could not be easily redacted.

During Kirklees Council’s Health and Adult Care Social Care Scrutiny Panel, Michael Doyle, the deputy director of nursing and quality for South West Yorkshire Partnership NHS Foundation Trust, revealed Yorkshire had the highest suicide rate in England in 2017.

Scammonden Bridge – which is just inside the Kirklees borough border – has been used by people taking their own lives more than half a dozen times in the past few years, most recently last September.

Mr Doyle said: “We’re looking at eliminating the risk from these particular places.

“Scammonden is one where people are coming from far and wide to use it as a place to take their own life.

“Highways England has evaluated the engineering considerations of the bridge and it wasn’t as straight forward as they had anticipated.

“But they are looking what they can do.

“From our perspective, it’s the sooner they can put something up, the better.”

Mr Doyle said all the organisations involved were meeting with Highways England for an update on December 6. Campaign group ‘Bridge The Gap’ have decorated Scammonden Bridge with messages and ribbons to try and deter people from taking their own lives