IN a joint response to the public consultation regarding the A379 Bridges Replacement Scheme, the IWA and the Friends of Exeter Ship Canal & Heritage Harbour (FESCHH) say they also believe that the consultation is unrepresentative.
Despite Devon County Council proposing five options for the new bridges at stakeholders’ meetings in October last year, the now-closed consultation presented only one for the public to comment on, which proposed replacing the bridges at a similarly restrictive height as the current bridges.
The Exeter Ship Canal provides a five-mile navigable route between Exeter Canal Basin, in the heart of the city, and the English Channel via Turf Lock and the Exe Estuary. The two adjacent bridges carry the A379, a busy dual carriageway, across the canal at its mid-point. Currently, they have exceptionally low air drafts (the clearance between water level and underside of a bridge), which present a barrier to boaters, paddleboarders, cyclists and pedestrians.
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IWA representative Ray Alexander said: “Devon County Council appears to be back-tracking on its own Strategic Outline Business Case (SOBC) for the scheme, which has previously been approved by the Department for Transport. For example, the SOBC identified the potential for cyclists and pedestrians to pass underneath the new bridges if they were built higher, but this significant safety benefit would be lost if they now press ahead without doing so.”
The IWA and FESCHH point to numerous opportunities and benefits that raising the height of the bridges could bring to the area’s community, economy and environment.
These include increasing active travel opportunities and safety, enabling sustainable freight use of the canal, reducing pollution and improving the environment.
Mr Alexander added: “At a time when towns and cities are introducing congestion management measures and seeking low-carbon transport alternatives, it would be short-sighted to rebuild the A379 bridges at a height that discourages future, environmentally friendly freight opportunities on the canal.”
Ellen Stuart, of FESCHH, said: “Increased use of the Exeter Ship Canal would encourage more visitors to the canal basin, riverside quay and city, boosting existing businesses and creating the potential for new ones.
“The scheme proposes spending up to £50 million of public money (85% from the Department for Transport) on replacing the canal bridges and associated works. If this investment is to serve Exeter and Devon for the next 60-plus years, it should future-proof Exeter Ship Canal for leisure, freight and passenger use, rather than merely reproducing the existing constraints. We should be building for the future, not the past.”
