CAMPAIGNERS fighting the demolition of a Victorian bridge have marked its 125th birthday...by vowing to save it.

Boxted Bridge was built in 1897 but faces an uncertain future after Essex County Council identified major defects in the structure back in 2018.

The council plans to knock down the bridge and construct a replacement which, the council argues, will be more structurally sound and also allow for emergency services to cross the bridge more easily.

However, the plans have met with a tidal wave of objections including a petition against its removal which has 6,926 signatures.

Conservative councillor Lee Scott, who is in charge of highways at Essex County Council, said the decision to replace the bridge was made in the interests in public safety.

He said: “The possibility of repairing the current structure was explored through a detailed and independent option study – this study clearly recommended that replacement was the best option.

“We are making this decision on safety grounds – this is our paramount concern and we are aware that those against us will never agree with our proposals, but on matters of safety expert engineering opinion should always outweigh any other.”

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But Lucinda de Jasay, who is spearheading the campaign to have the bridge repaired rather than replaced argued that plans for the new bridge, which will make it wider and flatter, will mean cars drive over it at greater speed.

She said: “We are entitled to expect more than sanctimonious platitudes about safety being paramount.

“As far as traffic safety is concerned, it is beyond belief that desk studies about fire engine manoeuvres are being proposed to override all the area of natural beauty, heritage and community considerations put forward.

“What exactly are the safety concerns, now so pressing, after 30 years of neglect?”

A planning hearing on the bridge’s future is due to take place before the end of July in what is likely to be a key meeting deciding on the bridge’s future.

Ms de Jasay added she felt the “whole application needed to go back to the drawing board”.