The former rail route carried by the Bowstring Bridge was made into a footpath over the River Soar in 1985. But the footway closed in 2000 because of safety fears.

In 2005, city council engineers said in a report that the former railway bridge could only just support its own weight and would need £775,000 of repairs – and it would cost £2.5 million to get it to its former state.

The council then agreed in principle to knock the bridge down, unless anyone could pay to move it elsewhere and restore it.

This was to allow De Montfort University to build its sports complex.

But the council's legal department advised the authority that, although the footpath was closed in 2000, it was still classed as a public highway. There was therefore a legal requirement to formally close the right of way which passes over the Bowstring Bridge before any progress could be made to demolish it.

Last year the destruction of the iconic Victorian railway bridge moved closer after objectors lost a three-day court battle to stop the footpath being closed as a right of way.

Another plea was made by campaigners to the council in January this year for the authority to spend up to £2.5 million revamping Bowstring Bridge.

Leicester's Civic and Victorian societies and Leicestershire Industrial History Society said they wanted a new surveyor's report carried out on the bridge. However, this and other pleas were turned down by the authority.