Secret deal set to seal fate of bridge
Leicester City Council is expected to agree plans to demolish the city's historic Bowstring Bridge in private discussions this week.
A secret report leaked to the Leicester Mercury shows a deal is now in place to help De Montfort University build a swimming pool and sports centre in the West End.
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Campaigner Lee Mullen
Today, the council's cabinet is expected to agree to spend up to £472,000 demolishing the Victorian bridge by January.
It is also thought they will agree to sell the remainder of the viaduct, in Duns Lane, and adjacent land to the university for an initial £1 fee.
The report, entitled "Sale of land and viaduct at Duns Lane" says the university will then knock down the remainder of the viaduct, demolish the Pump and Tap pub and apply to build a £6m sports centre there. The university will then give a second payment of about £250,000 to the council for the land. Another payment of £500,000 will also be made as part of a planning agreement.
Both parties say the sports centre will be available for public use, but it is not clear to what extent.
Thousands of people have opposed the plan to knock down the bridge and the pub since it was first suggested in 2005. An online Facebook group called Save the Pump and Tap and Braunstone Gate Bridge currently has 3,089 members, and an online petition on the Prime Minister's website has 1,295 signatures.
Campaign founder Lee Mullen said: "If the council goes ahead with this demolition, it deliberately flies in the face of public opinion. They may as well stick two fingers up at the people whose interests they are meant to be serving.
"Leicester has more than 2,000 years of history, but the planners seem to have no appreciation of the fact that architectural history is what gives a city character, and the people that live in it a sense of place."
Mr Mullen said in "any other city" a landmark such as the Bowstring Bridge would be "cherished".
He said: "The loss of the bridge and arches would be a disaster, but also destroying the Pump and Tap, itself a fine Victorian building and a hub for West End residents, is simply appalling."
The bridge was built in 1897 to support the Great Central Railway. Now the only hope for the thousands of campaigners who want to save it is an application already underway to get the bridge listed.
Leicester Civic Society says a decision is imminent from English Heritage – and if the application fails, it is "game over".
Civic society chairman Stuart Bailey said: "If it is listed, the council will have to apply to have it de-listed, and they won't want to do that.
"The council seem intent to carry out these decisions in private and not stand by them in public. They are selling off our heritage, and that is a real tragedy."
Last year, the city council won a court case to close a footpath running over the bridge. That paved the way for this latest decision to be considered.
Patrick Kitterick, city council cabinet member for regeneration, said the item was only being heard in private because it contained prices.
He said: "It is not a secret. You can't just go and remove a bridge in the middle of the night. It is being discussed in private because the document includes the price of selling land. That's always been our policy and there will be more opportunities for people to have their say.
"We cannot afford to restore and maintain the bridge because this runs into millions. In turn, we have the opportunity to have a swimming pool and sports centre a stone's throw from the city centre.
"A sports centre in that location would be massively popular with the people of Leicester and the West End.
"We are getting good value for money because the city would be getting a £6m sports facility and it won't cost the local taxpayer a penny.
"On opening day we will see how unpopular our decision was then."
The sports complex would include a 25-metre swimming pool, a sports hall with six courts, a gym and a fitness suite.
83 Comments
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by Tom Watson, Earl Shilton
Thursday, August 06 2009, 1:21PM
“If the content of the council's document is so sensitive because it contains financial information, what is to stop a subsequent application under the Freedom of Information Act?
It's just a shame the council's attitude to the possibility of a tram system in Leicester was so apathetic, as an ideal line would have been from the new Park & Ride opposite the Police HQ, past Fosse Park and along the old railway trackbed, serving the Walkers, LRI, De Montfort uni and the city centre - and would have used this bridge.
Don''t you just love living in a city run by a myopic council?”
by LM on-line staff, Leicester
Wednesday, August 05 2009, 8:29AM
“Comments referring to Coun Kitterick having connections with De Montfort University have been removed. Coun Kitterick did work as a bus driver for the Students¿ Union but left in January.”
by Steph Sutcliffe, Leicester
Tuesday, August 04 2009, 8:48AM
“I think that the proposed new facility is an excellent idea. Not only will we all have access to a brand new fitness facility but the city will also attract more students - which lets face it in this climate would be a god send given they're the only ones with a disposable income. Leicester businesses need a boost and this will undoubtedly provide that. Yes its a shame the bridge has to go but I walk under it regularly and I've never seen any of these nay sayers admiring it.”
by Terry, from Luxembourg
Monday, August 03 2009, 2:47PM
“Patterick Kitterick says.......It is not a secret. You can't just go and remove a bridge in the middle of the night. It is being discussed in private because the document includes the price of selling land. That's always been our policy and there will be more opportunities for people to have their say.........
Hang on here they are discussing spending OUR money and we aren't allowed to listening to the conversations hmmmmmmmmm”
by Fred, Leicester
Monday, August 03 2009, 2:17PM
“I'm afraid K's comment really sums up the problems with these comment pages - firstly her comment about the planning committee not being from Leicester is utterly meaningless. You don't have to come from Leicester to care about the place (me, for example) and there are plenty of people from leicester who seem to be want to be somewhere else (see comments pages passim). Secondly, listing does not prevent something being knocked down (see Liberty building, late of Eastern Boulevard).
The battle for this bridge has been going on for years, and no-one has come up with a better and more practical solution than this one.”
by K, Leicester
Monday, August 03 2009, 1:42PM
“It says in the article "The only reason this is being held in private is because it contains prices". Surely in a democratic world the public have a right to know how much this is costing.
Can we have some people on the planning committee who actually care about Leicester's history before its too late?
Oops I forgot, they tell me most if not all of these people are not originally from Leicester so they dont give a monkeys about anything.
Hopefully English Heritage will list the bridge, what a slap in the face that would be for the idiots who run the city of Leicester and for that matter DMU.”
by Mr C, Leicester
Monday, August 03 2009, 1:24PM
“Has anyone considered a freedom of information request to the council?
What councillors are voting and how? How much is the site being sold for? etc
Make one at: http://www.whatdotheyknow.com/”
by kaydee, leic
Monday, August 03 2009, 1:11PM
“What a load of rubbish, you cry when the "Council" spend money on things you don't like, you'll shout "What a waste of money". Whats the point of keeping somethings that has no function. Take it down and be done with it. The Council should have taken it down ages ago, Rod for their own back springs to mind. Its a waste of space. I think anybody here today whos wants to kep should ask the council to bring the bots to their houses where they can keep it for ever.”
by Christopher Sim, New Parks, Leicester
Monday, August 03 2009, 1:09PM
“It's a typical indictment of the council and the university that they will stop at nothing to have their own way. They have had plenty of opportunity to build a swimming pool on numerous pieces of land which are or were unoccupied and in dire need of regeneration. Unfortunately though this doesn't fit the university plan to make Leicester one giant student campus at the expense of the people who live and work in the city. There are now few remaining landmarks of this once great railway and I know that as a child it always gave me great pleasure to see the bridge when I went by, it really is a feat of engineering for the city to be proud of having. Nobody would ever dispute the need to rebuild and renew areas that are run down but that does not have to be done by sweeping areas away and replacing it with multicoloured buildings which appear to have been made of lego. The neglect and damage of the heritage of our city by the council is an embarrassment as is it's weak-kneed response in the face of cash wielding developers who have the ability it would seem to have anything built no matter how ridiculous. In the past buildings have been allowed to fall into a ruinous state until it's too late to save them and they appear to have done the same again with regards to the bridge. Before anybody starts attacking me as an embittered old man I'm only 24 and in my lifetime have seen a city I once loved become a city I now despair of.”
by Edward, Leicester
Monday, August 03 2009, 12:45PM
“I would be in support of this campaign if it hadn't been taken over by people using it to (as usual) knock the city, knock the council and say silly things like "in any other city a landmark such as the Bowstring Bridge would be "cherished". Get out of Leicester much do we? Or that the Pump and tap is a "fine" Victorian building. It isn't (but frankly that is of little importance - it's social vale is what really counts).
The way changes in Leicester over the last hundred and fifty years (yes, it was the beloved Victorians who started knocking down Leicester's heritage!) are blamed on the current council are ridiculous. Far from neglecting the past there has been an enormous amount done around the city to maintain what is left, or to build first class buildings worthy of the 21st century. Take a look at the (genuinely) fine building next to Curve for instance - saved and restored - without so much as a comment in the Mercury.
It's easy to take pot shots at the council for this (and I have no idea why they don't explain why they are holding this meeting in private) but the fact is many many more people will benefit from the pool than from the crumbling (even though magnificent) bridge.”