Ironbridge Gorge stabilisation hit by delays
A multi million pound project to stabilise an area of the Ironbridge Gorge is being held back after landowners failed to give permission for it to go ahead, councillors have heard.
Thousands of trees need to be removed in Jackfield to prepare the land for stabilisation works, which were given the go-ahead earlier this year.
But plans have been delayed as a number of landowners have failed to sign legal leases and permissions for the work to begin, according to local councillors.
At a meeting of The Gorge Parish Council last night, chairman Keith Osmund-Smith reported back from a meeting of the Jackfield Stabilisation Stakeholder Group, held in the Jackfield Village Hall earlier in the day.
He said he was mostly worried about information from Neal Rushton, the structures and geotechnics team leader at Telford & Wrekin Council.
At the meeting, held in the council's offices in the Maws Craft Centre, He said: "Several landowners have not signed legal leases and permissions to allow work to begin. The trees should now be down.
"If the work is not complete by February 14 the whole project could fall down. Ordinary residents are up in arms that one or two landowners are getting in the way of this essential work."
A total of 64 properties in Jackfield need to approve the work before it can go ahead.
The tree removal and preparation work was due to start in mid-December.
Councillor Osmund-Smith said: "It had been decided not to make a compulsory purchase and to do it through negotiation, as the urgency of the work would not require it."
Under the Jackfield Stabilisation Project, a total of 350 metres along the river at Salthouse Road, rising 250 metres into Jackfield, will be underpinned and roads and footpaths realigned.
A new road, car park and river viewing areas would also be created by the plan.
In 1952, six houses were lost, about 300,000 tonnes of ground moved and the river reduced from 38.1m wide to 24.4m. In 1983 Salthouse Road was carried into the river.
The Government has put £12 million into the scheme, while Telford & Wrekin Council will be funding the rest.
Members of the stakeholder group have asked for the minutes of their meeting to be sent to landowners, urging them to sign the permissions for the work.
