Councillors urged to delay bridge decision

Stirling councillors will this week be urged to postpone a decision on the planning application for the replacement of the city’s Kerse Road Bridge.

The controversial proposal from Network Rail is due to be discussed tomorrow (Thursday) when a hearing will take place at a meeting of the council’s planning panel.

Stirling East councillor Gerry McLaughlan requested the hearing and is due to address the meeting as one of the local members.

Both he and Braehead Community Council want the panel to defer any decision until a strategy to cope with traffic displaced during the proposed 12-month closure of Kerse Road is produced.

Councillor McLaughlan said: “When Network Rail first lodged their planning application for the replacement of the bridge, they said there were four documents which had to be read in conjunction with it.

“One was a transport strategy. We are now around four months further on and we still don’t have that strategy, so I will be asking members of the planning to postpone a decision on the application until we do get that strategy.”

Councillor McLaughlan was also unhappy with the bridge’s “off the shelf, Meccano” design and intends to urge Network Rail to go for a style befitting Stirling’s new city regional deal status.

“The design should be more sympathetic to the Forthside (`Spiky’) Bridge nearby and its parapets should be glass and steel,” he added. “It should be modern and reflect the way Stirling is trying to position itself as a modern, go-ahead city.”

Braehead Community Council are one of the objectors to the application and intend to be represented at the hearing.

Chairman Chris Kane said: “We told Network Rail at our last meeting that we could not support a plan without knowing all of the relevant information.

“We’re still waiting to see the final plans for traffic mitigation round Braehead and we have not been convinced that the ridiculous year-long closure of Kerse Road has been properly thought out.

“We can’t support this planning application in its current form and hope the planning panel agree with us.”

Network Rail say the councilowned bridge, built around 1968, has to be replaced to cope with the electrification of the rail line below.

They want to close Kerse Road between Craigs Roundabout and Springbank Roundabout for 12 months from the end of May to allow work to proceed.

However, the closure of a main route into and out of Stirling has angered residents, business people and community councils and prompted the Observer’s `Keep Stirling Moving’ petition.

It has been signed by more than 1000 people and calls on Network Rail to significantly reduce the length of time the road over the bridge is closed to traffic.

A report from officials, to be tabled at the panel meeting, accepts the road closure will displace a substantial volume of traffic to other parts of the city’s roads network and adds: “It is important to provide for adequate temporary traffic management to minimise the potential negative impacts of the road closure as far as practicable.”

Officials believe the matter can be dealt with by a “suspensive planning condition” which would require the prior approval by the planning panel of a transport assessment and associated transport management plan before the start of any work that would result in the closure of the public road.

Network Rail told the Observer last month they were working closely with the council to develop a transport management plan and conducting a traffic impact assessment to identify mitigation measures.

This would be made available “when complete and agreed with the council”.