Clun's Old Bridge hit again as solution sought to heavy traffic through the town
Just months after it was repaired, the Old Bridge in Clun has once again been damaged by heavy traffic coming through the town.
Shropshire Council and Clun Town Council are now looking at ways to prevent HGV traffic coming through Clun after the historic bridge was hit again.
Repair work on the 15th century, Grade II* listed bridge usually means long diversion routes for cars who normally use the bridge, which carries the A488 and B4368 roads over it.
Nigel Hartin, Shropshire Councillor for Clun, said a working group are looking at solutions after the bridge has been hit a couple of times in recent months.
"There was some significant work only completed a couple of months ago, on the northern end which leads into Bishop's Castle," he said.
"Unfortunately, there was an urgent road closure after Severn Trent had to deal with an emergency, and they could not let traffic through. So a vehicle was reversing and manoeuvring and unfortunately hit the other end of the bridge.
See also:
"Also, there was another minor clip from a hay bale recently, but not much damage.
"There is work going on at the moment from the traffic working group, consisting of the town council, myself and Shropshire Council. We are trying to look at long-term solutions, we are looking at area-wide traffic restrictions."
Consultation
Mr Hartin said that this has been an issue for as long as he has been a councillor in Clun, but they are working hard to come up with a solution to the problem.
He added: "The bridge itself is a strong old bridge. The current damage is not seriously structural. Nevertheless it keeps happening and something needs to be done.
"The town council is aware of the problems and we will hold a consultation very soon so we can deal with this. We also have CCTV at the southern end of the bridge, which picks up vehicle registrations on most occasions which we can then trace."
A Shropshire Council spokesperson said: "This is the only damage that has occurred to this bridge this year, and it is unfortunate that this has happened so soon after the recent repair work.
“The work required will be added to our programme of works for our contractor to undertake the necessary repairs as soon as practicably possible, as the use of lime mortar is very much temperature and weather dependent.
“We are currently looking at improvements to the existing signing on the highway network around Clun in order to reduce the risk of HGVs travelling through the town.”
