Over 1,000 sign petition calling for new bridge

Over 1,300 residents have signed a petition requesting their local council reconsiders building a new bridge which was destroyed during a storm in 2021.

At a Denbighshire County Council cabinet meeting in May, Denbighshire councillors voted to abandon plans to replace Llanerch Bridge on the advice of council officers.

The bridge was destroyed during Storm Christoph in 2021 when the River Clwyd burst its banks.

Council officers said drilling into the riverbed could contaminate a water supply to 85,000 homes and that if the council persisted with the bridge, the authority could be liable for millions of pounds in legal costs.

The missing bridge means Trefnant and Tremeirchion residents face seven-mile diversions on back roads and country lanes.
Now a petition has been set up to try and convince the council to reconsider.

The petition follows local councillors campaigning for a temporary structure at the former Llanerch Bridge site, but that has also been dismissed by council officers as risky.

Petition

Sue Holyroyd started the petition together with fellow Tremeirchion resident Deborah Albrow.

“We’ve got over 1,300 signatures. We only started this a week last Sunday,” she said.

“This week we are getting out paper petitions to businesses in the area. They are going out in Dyserth, Llandyrnog, Rhuallt, St Asaph, Trefnant, and of course, Tremeirchion.

“People want their bridge back. It affects a lot of people. It was unexpected, the response from Denbighshire County Council at the end of May. When you read comments on Facebook, you can tell people are just not happy about this.

“For example, they have to spend more money on petrol. They have to allow more time for travelling. It affects people in lots of ways. It is not just people from Tremeirchion. It is people coming into the village, and the other road that we now have to use to go to Trefnant – they call it Bach y Graig – it is in a terrible condition. It is a detour for people not to be able to go direct to Trefnant.”

She added: “People aren’t happy. January will be the fifth anniversary of not having a bridge. The response has been amazing. We hope the council will reconsider what the options are, instead of just saying it is not doable. They will realise people are unhappy about the situation.”

Backing

Tremeirchion councillor Chris Evans is backing the petition for the new bridge.

“Deborah and Sue have contacted me about the bridge,” he said.

“I’m supporting them. They are doing this for the community to show how much the bridge is needed in the villages.”

The now-abandoned plans for a new bridge, which was estimated to cost between £8m and £10m, would have required engineers to drill deep into sandstone layers, potentially creating fissures that could contaminate the water.

Although £1.5m had been spent on design work, the council said the works could endanger public health.

A Denbighshire spokesman commented: “Since its collapse, Denbighshire County Council have worked closely with the Welsh Government to try and find a design solution to replace the bridge without damaging and potentially contaminating a nearby ground water abstraction facility.

“It was always the desire and intention of the council to replace the bridge. However, having followed a robust process and fully assessed the risks and issues from a design and construction perspective, it was not possible to design a foundation that could accommodate the predicted riverbed scour depth without penetrating the bedrock below, which holds the aquifer that is the source of the ground water abstraction.

“Therefore, unfortunately after significant consideration, the council’s cabinet decided not to proceed with the final design solution for a new highway bridge earlier this year.”

To sign the petition, visit: https://www.change.org/p/rebuild-pont-llanerch-llannerch-bridge