Residents will recall that, some time ago, I advised that the City Council was working on a project that, subject to funding support from Sustrans, the walking and cycling charity, would replace the Magdalen Green footbridge across the rail line to Riverside, with a new footbridge.
The existing bridge has seen better days and is not suitable for wheelchair users or cyclists, so a bid was made to Sustrans to try to secure money from the Places for Everyone fund to assess the feasibility of replacing it.
This was successful which has allowed design work to progress. However, a more substantial funding award will be necessary to actually deliver the new footbridge. This requires Sustrans to approve the design and the project to gain sufficient support by Sustrans to allow for an award to build the replacement footbridge to go ahead.
I recently contacted the City Council engineer who is working on this project for an update and he has advised :
“Sustrans has asked for some additional information in support of our funding request.
We will continue to work to ensure we meet their feedback and objectives.
This will allow us to resubmit when the next funding allocation opens, next financial year, to take the project forward.”
I will, of course, keep residents updated as the process moves forward.