Whitby link breaks down again after freak accident

The crossing only reopened to traffic on Friday after nine days of chaos when it was stuck in the open position, forcing Scarborough Council to fly in spare parts all the way from Italy.

Yesterday morning – after opening to let a vessel through – harbour staff only just managed to close it again before another breakdown occurred at 9am.

Fortunately, there was no disruption to shipping because the tides were in the council's favour until the bridge was fixed again at 3pm after a team of engineers was called from Nottingham.

Traders, who had criticised the council for reopening the crossing to heavy traffic while it was still being tested on Friday, at first thought it was the tonnage on the century-old structure which was to blame.

But Scarborough Council revealed that part of the locking mechanism had been damaged in a freak accident as a vessel went through the bridge in the early hours of yesterday.

"It would appear that in the early hours of this morning, a vessel has gone under the bridge and its antennae has clipped some trip switches on the underside of the bridge," a council spokesman said.

"We're having a look at CCTV to see if we can find out which vessel.

"It has nothing whatsoever to do with last week's problems – just a coincidence.

"The bridge was stuck in the closed position, accessible for pedestrians and road traffic but unable to be used by river/harbour traffic. As it happened, it was low tide, so no river traffic was able to come or go anyway."

During the nine days the bridge across the River Esk was out of action east and west Whitby were cut off from each other, traders lost hundreds of thousands of pounds, and hundreds of people queued for shuttle buses and water taxis.

Traders met yesterday evening to discuss calls for a summer ban on HGV traffic using the bridge, and less frequent openings.

Head of technical services John Riby said the council was aware of some traders' views about traffic over the bridge but any restrictions needed careful consideration.