£8m spent on axed plan to fill in railway bridges

THE policy of filling in historic railway bridges with concrete cost taxpayers £8million over eight years before it was scrapped.

Fifty bridges, deemed by highway bosses to be at risk of collapse without repointing and restoration, were blocked at a cost of £8,011,624 in what critics called an act of cultural vandalism.

The most expensive site, Copland Road, Glasgow, cost £817,511, while £240,416 was spent at Wellinditch, in Chelmsford, Essex.

Last July ministers ordered National Highways to stop further projects and consult local groups on alternative uses for the bridges.

The organisation says it ‘will no longer consider the infilling of any structures’. Graeme Bickerdike, of The Historical Railways Estate Group – which campaigns to save old railway structures – said: ‘We look forward to seeing National Highways’ words turned into actions and we hope we can now draw a line under the thoughtless loss of our railway heritage.’

But critics warn that a loophole exists, allowing work where there is ‘absolutely no alternative’.

That has led campaigners to fear that despite the Government ban, highway bosses could still target 59 bridges under threat of infilling and nine more that could be demolished.