Money being spent on Whitby Swing Bridge won’t future proof it - Yorkshire Post Letters

Re: £200k Swing Bridge project.

The claim that the North Yorkshire Council’s proposed £200k expenditure would (or could) ‘futureproof’ the century old bridge is utter nonsense.

The fact is that the single-lane swing bridge was outdated as soon as New Quay Road was constructed (to supplement Baxtergate) and Church Street (to Scarborough and the south) was widened to two lanes. Since then (and that is for most of the life of the swing bridge) the people of Whitby have laboured under the anomaly of a single lane bridge serving to divide, rather than to unite, the East and West parts of their town.

This fact alone, without taking into account the effects of ‘wear and tear’ on the mechanism, the change in nature of traffic from horse-drawn to motor-vehicles; the increase in both their weight and frequency; and the increase in pedestrian tourist and visitor traffic since WW2, should suffice to demonstrate that the proposed upgrading of the present structure and mechanism, and resurfacing measures, are wholly inadequate to meet the real needs of the town and its people.

The North Yorkshire Council should realise and acknowledge that ‘historic’ though the swing bridge is, that is its only ‘virtue’ - and it will remain a creditworthy part of Whitby’s history long after it is replaced by a bridge as fitting to the present needs of the town as was the then forward looking (even ‘future proof’) 1908 bridge to the needs of the town of that day and age.

In brief, what Whitby needs is a modern, two lane bridge linking the two halves of the town, opening for shipping by means of bi-directional swinging halves, vertical lift, or bascule mechanism.