Causeway Coast and Glens Council calls for new Kilrea bridge to replace current one "built for horses, carts, and cattle"
Causeway Coast and Glens Borough Council has called for a new bridge to be built in Kilrea.
At January’s full council meeting members approved a cross-party motion, proposed by UUP councillor Richard Holmes and seconded by Sinn Féin councillor Sean Bateson and DUP Alderman Michelle Knight-McQuillan, which read: “This council notes the recent closure of Kilrea’s Bann bridge due to maintenance issues and the detrimental impact on local businesses and communities.
“It has served the people of the area well for almost 250 years and is part of the picturesque lower Bann waterway. But in the 21st century we believe it is time to add a new bridge to increase traffic flow and meet the demands of a modern transport infrastructure.
“We therefore call for an additional bridge to form part of the Local Development Plan, any future Regional Development Plan and for council to lobby the appropriate bodies to secure funding for and a commitment to a new bridge for Kilrea as part of the existing commitments towards RDS 2035.”
Councillor Holmes argued that while the Bann Bridge is “one of the most picturesque of the Lower Bann”, it was built for “horses, carts, and cattle” in 1783 and is therefore no longer fit for purpose.
“It was 100 years before the invention of a motor car and therein lies much of the current problems that we’re facing,” he added. “The recent closure of Kilrea Bridge has exposed the over-reliance on an ageing infrastructure.
“The inability to coordinate additional maintenance with the already-planned maintenance in 2022 has had a crippling impact on local traders and inconvenienced the local population.
“The cry from the locals is ‘build our bridge, protect our history and build our future’ [but] we cannot hope to build the 21st century, competitive economy on creaking infrastructure, as the Regional Development Strategy 2035 pointed out.
“A new bridge is a priority in the Kilrea area and the surrounding towns, it needs to be priority on the desks of council officials, councillors, Stormont Ministers and DfI officials.
“Work needs to start now, through the Local Development Plan and any future regional development plans, to ensure the 2030s do not end with the another lorry stuck on a 250-year-old bridge.”
Alderman Knight-McQuillan said a new bridge may not be the responsibility of council, but “the conversation has to start somewhere”.
“Each and every time the disruption impacts this rural town and the surrounding areas, especially when traffic is being diverted in and out of other roads that are not or are fit to take a heavy volume of traffic.
“This is not going to happen in the next few years, or maybe in the next 10 or 20 years, but even if it’s 30 years, it has to be done.”
Councillor Bateson said: “For almost 250 the Bann Bridge has served Kilrea and the wider Lower Bann area well. It is a valued part of our heritage and should continued to be protected, but it was never designed to meet the demands of modern traffic or to act as a lifeline for the town.
“Securing a new bridge is not the remit of one councillor or party, and it takes sustained, cross-party lobbying and cooperation with corporate agencies to make this happen.”