A petition – signed by nearly 1300 Bath residents – has been presented to the House of Commons by the city’s MP Wera Hbnhouse.
The petition – bearing 1290 names – asks that the current weight limit on the historic Cleveland Bridge be made permanent, even after repairs on the structure are completed in 2021.
Bath’s MP has been campaigning fiercely for this change, having led a debate in the House of Commons last month on this issue and having written several times to the relevant Ministers. The campaign will continue into the new year with a meeting planned between Ms Hobhouse and Baroness Veer, the Under-Secretary of State for Transport.
Wera Hobhouse said:
“I am determined to be able to show Government exactly how important this campaign is to people in Bath. What we are asking for is quite simple – that Bath Council have control over its own decision-making processes and can implement any weight limit required to protect the heritage of our infrastructure.
I am looking forwards to meeting with Baroness Veer, in the new year, to discuss the implications of this proposed change. If Cleveland Bridge is forced to reopen to 40 tonnes vehicles next year it will simply take more damage and sooner, rather than later, it will need to be repaired again.”
Although it would undoubtedly cost money, we always thought the previous plan to build a link road from the A36, across to the bottom of the A46 was a good one, and if it had been done at the time, trees would already have grown up along it to screen it from Bathford, and to absorb traffic noise. Could not this plan be re-visited?
Jane and Anthony Stickland.
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Of course, Jane, that is the logical solution, but there are a lot of people who have tunnel vision, rather like the Stonehenge Tunnel protesters, who can’t see the wood for the trees and in the process condemn other people to have very devalued environments.