Alnwick Garden in bid to ditch footbridge plan
Oct 20 2008 by Brian Daniel, The Journal
A TOP North visitor attraction’s move to ditch road safety plans for a footbridge is now facing opposition from its local council.
The Duchess of Northumberland’s Alnwick Garden is seeking approval to vary a five-year-old planning permission which includes construction of a bridge linking it to the garden car park across Denwick Lane.
The measure was intended to stop visitors to the attraction having to cross the busy road.
At the time of the application, garden bosses said it was struggling to raise the £3m needed to build the bridge and asked to be allowed to create a puffin crossing.
Alnwick District Council gave approval, but said it wanted the bridge to be built and that it did not regard the crossing as a permanent solution.
Now, however, the garden is seeking to abandon the bridge plan, and to make the crossing permanent.
As previously reported by The Journal, the attraction has been accused of going back on a promise by former councillor Heather Cairns, a member of the committee which approved the application in 2003.
And now, Alnwick Town Council has objected to the variation, calling for the bridge to be built as planned.
It has backed Mrs Cairns’ view that it would be a better safety solution than the crossing.
Coun Mary Graham, town mayor, last night said: “We just thought they should be made to still build the bridge because it is an extremely busy road.
“They are reneging on their original promise, probably because of what the cost is going to be.
“It would cost a lot but we would prefer the bridge in view of how busy the road is.”
The Garden says it has welcomed two million visitors since the application for the bridge was approved and in that time, there have been no accidents on Denwick Lane to warrant its introduction.
A spokesman said people living nearby are in favour of retaining the crossing as it slows traffic. Allerburn Lea Residents Association has sent a letter to the district council to this effect, and Alnwick Civic Society is also satisfied with the crossing.
The spokesman denied that the cost had led to the project being ditched. The district council will decide on the application in due course.
