'Death risk' Tees Transporter Bridge repair fund approved

The Transporter Bridge opened in 1911 and uses a gondola to carry vehicles across the Tees

A council has approved a £655,000 payout for emergency repairs to a "death risk" bridge.

Middlesbrough mayor Andy Preston said the Tees Transporter Bridge is in such a "bad way" that people are at risk from falling debris.

It has been closed for 16 months due to serious safety concerns, which included a worker nearly being killed by falling metalwork.

The six-figure sum will pay for repairs and a consultation on its future.

Options include removing the gondola which carries vehicles across the Tees and running it as a visitor attraction.

Middlesbrough Council's executive approving the funds after an audit found the bridge had suffered from years of "passive and ineffective" management by the authority.

The bridge famously featured in the TV series Auf Wiedersehen, Pet

The report said the cost to keep the Grade II-listed structure open as a visitor attraction would be about £4m over 10 years, but to reopen for traffic would cost £7m across the same period.

Mr Preston said: "It's in a bad way, stuff falls off and anybody underneath could die. What we want the public to do is tell us what [it would like]?

"Is it to keep functioning as a bridge, or is it to function as some kind of tourist attraction, something to bring people here?"

Local historian Tosh Warwick said the bridge offered an array of opportunities, from education about the area's industrial heritage to extreme sports such as bungee jumping.

"There's all kinds of opportunities to re-engage with the bridge and look at it in a totally new way instead of just as a heritage bridge."