Council 'confident' delayed bridge will be built

Artist impressions have been shared of the new bridge, which is now due to open in 2026

A new pedestrian and cycle bridge will be built despite delays and increased costs, the deputy leader of Nottingham City Council has said.

The 85m (278ft) bridge, linking the Trent Basin area in Nottingham with Lady Bay in Rushcliffe, was approved by senior city councillors at a meeting on Tuesday.

It was originally due to be completed by spring 2023, but will now not open until 2026.

Speaking to the BBC, deputy leader Ethan Radford said he understood people's cynicism about the project but was "confident" the bridge would be built.

Ethan Radford says the bridge "will make it easier for people to get from A to B"

"We're happy with the position we're in with it and we're hoping to get it done by 2026," he said.

It is set to become the first new river crossing built in the city in more than 65 years.

The project is being paid for by the government's Transforming Cities Fund, but council documents published in advance of the meeting said funding was still to be confirmed by the Department for Transport.

The report also said it could cost up to £18m - nearly double the original £9.275m budget - which Mr Radford blamed on inflation and increased costs for raw materials.

The authority said it hoped to get confirmation of funding before the end of the year.

Mr Radford said he was not worried about the prospect of it not being provided.

"We've put everything in place that we need to as a local authority to meet our end of it and now it's over to the government," he said.

The bridge is due to be lifted into place in November 2025

Asked why the project had faced delays, he said: "Things in local government never go as you plan them to."

The Department for Transport declined to comment.

Under the plans, steel sections will be fabricated off-site and brought to land on the north bank of the Trent for construction.

The bridge is then due to be lifted into place in November 2025, with the remaining steps, ramps and public realm areas due to be completed by the following spring.

Analysis

By Hugh Casswell, political reporter, BBC Nottingham

Infrastructure projects like this do have an irritating tendency of taking longer and costing more than planned.

The earliest mention I can find of this one though - admittedly not in the form of concrete plans - was from as far back as 2014.

That means if it's finished by the new 2026 opening date, it will have taken 12 years from conception to reality.

But is it even for real this time? And what about the cash?

Well, the funding is actually part of a much bigger pot of money that was awarded for all sorts of projects in 2019 - and goodness knows a lot has changed since then.

Some elements were scrapped and the money reallocated to others that have seen costs increase - like this one.

So the absence of confirmation may not be quite as alarming as it seems, and government departments are always tight-lipped about spending this close to the budget.