Ufton Nervet level crossing: Rail bridge approved

Network Rail said the bridge was designed to "blend in with the environment"

Plans for a bridge to replace level crossing where 11 people have been killed since 2004 have been approved.

West Berkshire District Council made the decision on Wednesday after designs for the structure at Ufton Nervet, in Berkshire, were unveiled in April.

Network Rail has said work on the bridge would start in 2016.

The East Area Planning Committee unanimously agreed the proposals, but the rail operator was criticised for not building a bridge sooner.

Committee vice chairman Alan Law said: "I'm very happy, it's a good result. But it has taken Network Rail an awfully long time getting there."

The rail operator has previously described the site as "complicated and constricted".

Permission was granted subject to a range of conditions, including a risk assessment being carried out to determine likely traffic speeds and measures being taken to protect the environment.

Seven people died at Ufton Nervet when a train hit a parked car on 6 November 2004

Brian Drysdale had been waiting for the results of an HIV test when he parked his car on the crossing in 2004, killing himself and six people aboard a train.

A further 140 were injured, the Office of Rail and Road said.

Four people have since died at the site.

Julian Burnell, from Network Rail, said the bridge had been "specifically designed to blend in with the environment as much as possible".

He said it would be no more than 9m (29ft) high and would have earth banks on either side planted with native trees.

The people who died in the 2004 crash

• Barry Stevens, 55, from Wells, Somerset

• Anjanette Rossi, 38, from Speen, Berkshire

• Her nine-year-old daughter Louella Main

• Train driver Stanley Martin, 54, of Torquay, Devon

• Emily Webster, 14, of Doccombe, Devon

• Charlie Matthews, 72, of Warminster, Wiltshire

• Brian Drysdale, 48, of Reading, Berkshire