Cuckoo's Hollow bridges shut after future 'collapse risk' found

Three bridges have been closed since Monday at Cuckoo's Hollow nature reserve in Peterborough

A council has defended the closure of three footbridges at a nature reserve in Peterborough.

They were shut on Monday at Cuckoo's Hollow in Werrington over public safety concerns.

Some people have questioned the lack of consultation about the decision and the impact it would have on accessibility.

Peterborough City Council said it had a duty to keep people safe and took independent advice before it closed them.

The council said it had received questions from the public since its announcement.

It insisted the wooden bridges were inspected for rot weekly and parts had deteriorated so much they were now too weak and unsafe for people to use.

'A risk of collapse'

Councillor Gavin Elsey, cabinet member for infrastructure, environment and climate change, said: "The level of deterioration currently exceeds any margin of safety that would have been incorporated in the original bridge design.

"This will eventually mean that the structures have insufficient capacity to carry the loads applied to it, creating a risk of collapse.

"The bridges are now at the point where they are presenting an unreasonable public health and safety risk, hence why we took the decision to close them."

He added: "It is not possible to say when a collapse might happen, however, given the rate of deterioration, our utmost priority is to maintain public safety and remove pedestrian access."

The authority is currently working on designs for replacement bridges - with temporary fixes deemed to be too expensive.

It said the new ones would be wider and improve accessibility.

The council stressed that it was a high priority to replace them and it hoped to begin work by autumn at the latest.

It reminded people that alternative routes to access the reserve, by foot or bike, were still available.