Tyne Bridge restoration: Fury mounts over delays to Government cash for decaying North East landmark
Fury continues to mount over the absence of promised Government funding for the restoration of the Tyne Bridge.
It had been hoped that a huge refurbishment of the iconic bridge would begin in earnest this month, but Tyneside is still waiting for the Department for Transport to deliver the tens of millions of pounds it has pledged for the long-awaited works. Increasingly exasperated council leaders have now warned that any further delay to the renovations would have “immeasurable” consequences for the North East and pleaded with ministers to hand over the cash urgently – claiming the scheme is “sitting in a minister’s box waiting to be signed off”.
The rusted state of the Tyne Bridge has been obvious for years and, as well as a repaint, the grade II* listed crossing is in need of a number of key structural repairs – having not undergone any major maintenance for more than 20 years.
Following years of campaigning, the DfT announced in June 2022 that it would put £35.3m into a project to refurbish both the bridge and the Central Motorway. And, under Rishi Sunak’s Network North pledges made after the scrapping of HS2’s northern leg, an uplift in funding has recently been promised to cover the full £41.4m budget of the scheme.
However, the money remains in Whitehall’s coffers. Preparatory works funded by Newcastle and Gateshead[1] councils did get under way last year, with scaffolding having been erected on the south side of the bridge.
But the Government’s financial commitment is needed to progress with the bulk of the repairs, which it was hoped would be able to start this month. The hugely disruptive maintenance works could take around four years to complete and will require traffic on the bridge to be cut to just one lane in each direction.
Local transport officials worry that pushing the scheme back further will cause its costs to increase and risk the bridge not being back to its best in time to celebrate its centenary in October 2028. Gateshead Council leader Martin Gannon told a North East Joint Transport Committee meeting on Tuesday that complaints over the absence of funding was “not about politics, it is about sheer competence.”
Scaffolding works on the Gateshead side of the Tyne Bridge (Image: Newcastle Chronicle)
He added: “This is a colossal project. We have done some initial work in terms of putting up some scaffolding. But if it does not start now then it is going to have profound implications on the project, potentially pushing it into another year.
“That will have a greater impact on Christmas[2] in the city centre, on another Great North Run, and it potentially increases the costs as well. I am told that this is sitting in a minister’s box waiting to be signed off. I don’t know what else to do at this point, other than bashing my head very hard against a brick wall.”
Local councils’ final business plan document for the Tyne Bridge works was submitted to the DfT in July 2023, but remains unapproved. Newcastle City Council[3] leader Nick Kemp said: “I will express my frustration with ministers' failure to open their ministerial boxes and sign off business cases that have hitherto been agreed.
"We continue to press hard to get the funding in place for the Tyne Bridge because the consequences are immeasurable. It makes me wonder whether central Government truly understands the time pressures involved.”
The Department for Transport was contacted for a response.
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References
- ^ Gateshead (www.chroniclelive.co.uk)
- ^ Christmas (www.chroniclelive.co.uk)
- ^ Newcastle City Council (www.chroniclelive.co.uk)
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