THIS IS JUST A BRIDGE TOO FAR

Evening Post Editorial - July 2005

In Years to come when Swansea's ruling coalition councillors have retired, they will be able to recount with pride projects such as the National Waterfront Museum and Morfa Stadium, which were completed during their tenure of office. Will they be able to remember the Slip Bridge with similar satisfaction?

We very much doubt it.

The council is spending a significant sum to install this ugly old structure with no architectural merit on a foreshore site that has benefited from major landscaping over the years.

Now salt has been poured into this environmental wound. To make way for the bridge, four mature trees have been chopped down.

All for what? To appease a handful of Swansea residents with memories of walking across the bridge many years ago to spend time on the city's beach.

The bridge might have been tarted up but it will serve no more useful purpose at its new location than it did at its previous site. It will do nothing to improve the quality or look of the bay, which is unquestionably one of Swansea's finest assets.

What is certain is that the bridge will become a target for vandals and the cause of accidents involving children and drunks climbing all over it.