Footbridge scheme set for green light

4:43pm Thursday 20th November 2008

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SAFETY may soon be improved as plans for a new footbridge are about to get the thumbs-up.

Plans for a second bridge alongside the increasingly busy Flexford Road railway bridge at Ampfield are expected to be rubber-stamped at the decision day of Hampshire County Council leader, Ken Thornber, on December 9.

Funding is coming largely cfrom a pooling of developers’ contributions held by Hampshire County, Test Valley Borough and Eastleigh Borough councils.

Engineers will be employing state-of-the-art techniques to run the new bridge alongside the existing one so that, for the first time, cyclists and pedestrians will not have to cross the busy road.

Hampshire’s deputy leader, Roy Perry, who has been pushing the plans, said: “I am sure this bridge was more than sufficient to cope with the traffic when it was built in Victorian times but, in recent years, the road has become much busier and not as safe as we would like it to be.

“Schoolchildren and the elderly regularly use the one footpath and then have to cross the busy road, but now they won’t have to.”

Test Valley Borough Council deputy leader, Martin Hatley, said: “The bridge had become woefully inadequate and lots of councillors have been pushing for this some time.

“This has happened as a result of a good working partnership and has taken more than 14 years. I am particularly pleased that this will help the many elderly people who used mobility scooters in the area.”

Clearance work for the site will begin in the early part of 2009 and the construction will be carried out in summer.