Iconic Hull bridge won’t be ready for City of Culture

BUSINESSES have voiced their frustration after it emerged that a landmark footbridge over Hull’s busiest road will not be completed until the Easter of the year it celebrates City of Culture at the earliest.
Hull Marina, where huge numbers are expected to flock as the city celebrates City of Culture in 2017.Hull Marina, where huge numbers are expected to flock as the city celebrates City of Culture in 2017.
Hull Marina, where huge numbers are expected to flock as the city celebrates City of Culture in 2017.

The £.5m bridge, part of the long-awaited upgrade of Castle Street, is seen as vital to link the city centre with Hull Marina and the Fruit Market arts quarter where many of the 2017 events will be held.

As many as 12m visitors are expected and there had been hopes work on the bridge would be speeded up so businesses can reap maximum benefit from the influx.

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But following talks with Transport Secretary Patrick McLoughlin in London, Coun Martin Mancey said the “best outcome” was that the bridge would be ready for Easter 2017.

He added: “The worst is that it doesn’t happen in time for 2017. But we are not prepared to accept that possibility we need to keep banging away to make it happen.”

The city council has secured £4m through the Humber Local Enterprise Partnership for the bridge but Coun Mancey stressed that the council did not own the road and they were “entirely in the hands of the Highways Agency.”

Delays have been blamed on “technical issues” including the need to divert sewers and cables before the foundations for the footbridge go in. “We are powerless other than to continue to lobby to the Secretary of State to pull their fingers out,” he said.

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With Parliament due to be dissolved at the end of the next month he now believes that the required development consent order, a form of planning permission for large-scale projects, will not now happen until after the General Election.

Local businesses reacted with disappointment.

Kirk Akdemir, who has a sandwich shop on Hull Marina, said the footfall was vital for local businesses which would now have to think about relocating or closing. He said: “We were really hopeful last year when we saw the plans and went through the selection process. We really needed the bridge before 2017.

“I have been waiting for good days to arrive and I am getting pessimistic hearing this news - I don’t think any of the traders can wait any longer.”

Paul Dennis, of the 1 Gallery, on Humber Quays, on Wellington Street West, said: “We don’t have footfall at the moment at any meaningful level. Twenty percent of the development which is going on at the moment (in Humber Street) with Wykeland Group. is going to be accessible to creative people and they are going to want the confidence that channels are opening up with the city centre.

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“(At the moment) you have to stop twice to cross, two foot away from 30mph juggernauts. It severs the link between the city and what is now a growing cultural area.”

Malcolm Scott, who is on the City of Culture board and whose son Mikey has a recording studio on Humber Street, said if the bridge wasn’t going to happen, they should consider a relatively inexpensive 50m wide crossing. He added: “It would mean you didn’t have two small pedestrian crossings each with a delay at the middle.”

The timescale should become clearer in a fortnight’s time.

Hull West and Hessle MP Alan Johnson, who was also at the meeting with Mr McLoughlin, said the Transport Secretary had been “receptive” about the bridge being built ahead of the Castle Street scheme. He said: “He undertook to explore this possibility with his officials as a matter of urgency and to write to me within the next fortnight to inform me of the outcome.”

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