Geograph - photograph every grid square

TF7023 : Congham railway bridgeTF7023 : Bridge over the former Midland and Great Northern Joint RailwayTF7023 : Overgrown railway bridge north of RoydonTF7023 : Old railway bridge

Row growing after third historic rail bridge filled in with concrete

Matthew Weaver writes in today's edition of The Guardian :

"A controversial practice by the government’s roads agency of burying historic railway bridges in concrete has been dealt a fresh blow after a third council intervened over another infilled structure.

"King's Lynn & West Norfolk [Borough Council] has told National Highways it must apply for retrospective planning permission if it wants to retain hundreds of tonnes of aggregate and concrete it used to submerge Congham bridge ... Campaigners point out that the innovative 1926 bridge is one of only three surviving examples of its precast design type in the country.

"The £127,000 infilling undertaken by NH in 2021 also blocks a disused railway due to be repurposed as a walking and cycling route between King's Lynn and Fakenham – that scheme was backed by £657,000 in government funding this month.

"The decision by [the] council to intervene comes in the week that NH was due to submit planning permission to Selby District Council concerning the burial of a bridge in North Yorkshire SE4544 , action which is blocking another potential walking and cycling route.

"Meanwhile Eden District Council has ordered NH to reverse its infilling of Great Musgrave bridge in Cumbria NY7613 by next October, after it failed to secure retrospective permission for the scheme following accusations of cultural vandalism.

"A 2003 assessment by Norfolk County Council said Congham bridge, which supports a little-used country lane, could hold a weight of 40t. But in 2019 NH's consultants claimed it could only support 7.5t and they used permitted development rights to temporarily infill the bridge on public safety grounds.

"Similar arguments have been used to justify an infilling programme by NH, a government-owned company, that has led to the loss of 51 historic railway structures since 2013."