IT was a "travesty of democracy" that a bridge was still missing from a 300-year-old river crossing five years after the executive of North Yorkshire County Council agreed to replace it, the Ramblers Association said yesterday.
More delays face the rebuilding of Skewkirk Bridge across the River Nidd between Kirk Hammerton and Cattal, near York, after the British Horse Society applied to have the route made a bridleway.
Landowner David Fattorini, whose father was given p
ermission to demolish the old bridge by the former West Riding County Council in 1969, disputes the right of way, but had agreed in principle on a 99-year lease for North Yorkshire to provide a £120,000 footbridge.
But he has now told the council that the bridge, which is in store waiting to be lifted into place, is not acceptable. He does not accept that the route is a bridleway and wants another bridge costing £250,000.
North Yorkshire's Corporate Director of Business and Environmental Service, Richard Flinton, told Harrogate Area Committee that the extra money was not available. In addition, if the BHS claim was successful the bridge would have to be removed and replaced by one suitable for horses.
Members were recommended to defer negotiations until the BHS claim had been resolved, but the chairman of the West Riding Area of the Ramblers' Association, Keith Wadd, said the situation was unacceptable.
Mr Wadd said the executive had agreed to replace Skewkirk Bridge in 2003. He told councillors: "It is a travesty of democracy if council decisions are not implemented."
Coun John Savage agreed, saying they had been talking about it since 1997. "The British Army took five days to move a turbine 100 miles across Afghanistan under attack by the Taliban, but North Yorkshire has achieved nothing here in 30 years."
The matter is to be put back before the council executive.
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