Bridgnorth Town Council prepares to close road to get cliff railway repairs underway
Bridgnorth Town Council has applied to close a road for six weeks as it prepares to fix a damaged wall that closed the town's cliff railway due to health and safety fears.
The Bridgnorth Cliff Railway was shut in December when structural issues were discovered with a retaining wall at the top of the attraction in High Town.
Since then, 14 of the 16 drivers and engineers at the funicular railway have been made redundant.
Meanwhile, Bridgnorth Town Council has been working out the ownership of the retaining wall to ascertain who has to pay for its repair and has been assessing the extent of the damage, but did say earlier this month that repair works were just "weeks away".
Now, signs have gone along Castle Terrace, which runs along the damaged wall, warning the public that the road will be closed later this month for "urgent repair works".
The closure is set to begin on March 20 and last six weeks until April 24.
But Bridgnorth Town Council has warned residents not to get their hopes up that the signs necessarily mean the repair works will begin straight away on March 20.
Clare Turner, town clerk, said: "We are still working closely with our partners and all those involved including the Cliff Railway as operators, and at at this stage I can't clarify when works will begin.
"The process we have to follow with road closures is that we have to give notice six weeks in advance to Shropshire Council, which we have done."
She said the planned road closures could be extended if the works cannot begin within the six-week timeframe scheduled with Shropshire Council.
But she added: "The town council is working very hard to get this work done as soon as we possibly can but if we have to delay the start then that is better than not having prepared for it by applying for the road closure. We want to start as soon as possible."
Owner of the Bridgnorth Cliff Railway, Malvern Tipping, earlier this week asked the town council to fix the issue with the retaining wall as soon as possible.
He said: "For all our sakes and for the transportation of visitors and locals alike, the cliff railway needs to be back in the business of carrying passengers soon.
"We will all have missed Easter by now, but we must be operating before the summer tourist season really gets underway. We all need the revenues which visitors bring to the town."
