TWO off-duty soldiers who managed to wade to safety after their car became stuck in a fast-flowing river may have caused the permanent closure of a 600-year ford.
The river crossing over the Wear at Stanhope, Weardale, has been closed to the public since April 1, 2008, after the hapless couple became stranded in their Peugeot 208 the day after it re-opened following winter closure.
The ford was immediately closed again by Durham County Council on the advice of emergency services and has not been re-opened to vehicles since.
But hundreds of people – including car rally enthusiasts – have petitioned for the popular tourist attraction to be re-opened even though a road bridge is only one third of a mile away. A public inquiry, which began at St Thomas Church Hall in Stanhope yesterday into the council’s bid to close the ford permanently, was told by the authority’s highways manager, Dave Wilcox, that it was closed between October 2007 and March 31, 2008, after a spate of rescues.
But the authority believed it would be safe to leave it open from April until October, but then came the army couple’s intervention.
Mr Wilcox told the hearing, which is expected to finish tomorrow: “On the first day it was opened, a couple from the army became stranded.
“They were fit and able to wade through eight inches of water to the shore.
“A man from Consett who had taken his children to the ford was able to tow their Peugeot out of the river.
“But had the couple not been fit, had they been infirm passengers or children, they may have been unable to wade to safety.”
Mr Wilcox told the hearing there had been 28 incident of motorists having to be rescued between 2000 and 2008. He said rising river levels by four inches had increased the danger following a build up of gravel and silt, and that river crossings by ford were now “rare” in the United Kingdom.
Mr Wilcox said it would cost the authority £100,000 to carry out an extensive refurbishment of the ford, but said that was unlikely to be cost effective as the gravel and silt would build up again.
He added that fire, police, ambulance services and the Environment Agency all supported its permanent closure.
However, John Shuttleworth, the county councillor for the area, called on the council to work with Durham and Darlington Fire and Rescue Service to find a solution to keep the ford open between March and September by allowing retained firefighters to man barriers at the entrance to the ford, which forms a 15m river crossing and is 4m wide.
He argued that it would be “detrimental to the local economy” to have a permanent closure.
