SCHEME TO MOVE LANDMARK BRIDGE ONE STEP CLOSER

Nino Williams - 30 March 2005

Moves to give Swansea's landmark Slip Bridge a new home are a step closer today. Plans to move the bridge have now been submitted to Swansea Council.

The proposal for the cast iron structure, which has been sitting next to St Helen's rugby ground for the past year, would see it moved across the road to the promenade cyclepath.The bridge's future was decided last month, more than a year after a report revealed its condition had deteriorated badly.

A £35,000 public consultation launched last October failed to find a clear consensus on what to do with it, so the cabinet decided to move it to the new spot on Swansea Bay.

Uncertainty surrounding the bridge, which is nearly 100 years old, was finally resolved when councillors agreed to relocate it to a new home alongside the cycle path opposite the rugby ground.

The move is expected to cost £100,000.

The planning application for the transfer across Oystermouth Road from its temporary home on the rec has now been received by the authority.

The move comes after months of concerned speculation about the future of the old bridge.

Campaigners trying to save the structure at its original location, including members of Swansea Civic Society, have had to concede defeat.

The council insists it was impossible to return the bridge to its original home spanning Oystermouth Road because disabled people would have been unable to use it.

Councillor Gerald Clement, cabinet member for culture and tourism, said: "There will be elements that wouldn't be satisfied apart from the restoration of the bridge in its original place.

"What we have come up with will satisfy most people.

"Had we put the bridge back in its own place, we have would have been going contrary to disabled access provision that we should comply with.

"Now all people will be able to use the bridge and enjoy the architecture within it.

"This is something to be used by everyone."