TENS of thousands of pounds will have to be spent on repairing the entrance bridge to Colchester Castle.

The bridge, which every visitor has to use to get in and out of the castle museum, was built in the 1930s, but its condition has severely deteriorated.

It had been hoped the essential repairs would have been carried out alongside a 15-month £4.2million refurbishment in 2013/14 but there was not enough money left at the end of that project to fund this scheme.

Paul Smith, Colchester Council finance boss, said: “It is a project which will cost tens of thousands of pounds.

“We are not certain how the supports at the side of the bridge are fitted with the bridge, so there will have to be exploratory work carried out before the work can actually start.”

Mr Smith added: “We were hoping to do the work at the same time as the refurbishment, but we encountered a few problems inside the castle, so we weren’t able to do that without the project running over time and we definitely didn’t want that to happen.”

The money will come out of the council’s general repairs fund and work is expected to begin within weeks so it will be finished in time for the main summer season.

While the work is carried out, the bridge will be closed in stages, so visitors will still be able to access the castle.

A report into the project published by Colchester Council said: “The condition of the main entrance bridge leading into Colchester Castle Museum has deteriorated such that it now requires refurbishment for it to remain serviceable and safe going forward.”

It added the bridge is safe to use at the moment, but if work is not carried out, the bridge will be deemed unsafe before the end of the year.

Three tenders were received to carry out the work but one was excluded immediately because it fell foul of the council’s procurement rules.

Out of the remaining two, the most competitive was found to have a mathematical error and the contractor chose to withdraw their offer, leaving just one fully compliant bidder.