Late plea to stop new Rhubarb Bridge crossings from opening over safety concerns

Leader of the city council’s Liberal Democrat group Cllr Nick Sandford is urging the authority not to open the crossings at the A47/A15 junction near Brotherhood Shopping Park over safety fears.

The signalised crossings on the busy slip roads were due to open on Monday, September 14 but delays mean they may now only be available to use from later this week.

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The Peterborough Lib Dems said: “Local residents were shocked to read in the Peterborough Telegraph recently that there have been five instances of vehicles hitting the barriers around the new pedestrian crossings at Rhubarb Bridge and the crossings are not even open yet.

“The city council has had three separate safety audits which have said that the crossings are not needed now that the footbridge is being repaired and, if opened, they could lead to many accidents, causing injury to pedestrians.”

The safety audits from contractors Skanska stated that bringing in the crossings could see multiple collisions every year, including ones which may be serious or fatal.

Skanska, which is the council’s official highways partner, has “strongly” urged the authority not to progress with the crossings but to instead focus only on repairing Rhubarb Bridge.

However, the concerns were dismissed by the council which insists that the overall scheme - which includes adding in an extra lane of traffic at the roundabout - is safe.

The authority has also suggested that the contractors were ‘confused’ by what the finished scheme would look like when compiling its assessment, that pedestrians and cyclists felt ‘intimidated’ by using Rhubarb Bridge due to previous incidents of serious crime at the location, and that it was not accessible for vulnerable residents.

Initially the £5.5 million scheme - which received £3.85 million of funding from the Department for Transport - envisaged the bridge being knocked down as it was described as being ‘at the end of its life’ and would allegedly cost up to £30 million to replace.

The council later did a U-turn after a new assessment revealed that Rhubarb could be repaired at the same cost as being demolished.

The Save Rhubarb Bridge campaign - which was crucial in preventing the popular foot and cycle bridge from being knocked down - has claimed that newly installed railings have been hit at least half a dozen times recently, prompting fears that “the worst accidents are yet to come” when the crossings finally open.

However, senior figures at Peterborough City Council insist there is no major safety risk and that there is “no evidence” the recent crashes are linked to the scheme.

Cllr Sandford, who is also ward member for Paston and Walton, said: “It is clear to experts and local people alike that, now that the bridge is being retained, these crossings are a safety hazard and should not be opened.”

Fellow Lib Dem councillor for Paston and Walton, Asif Shaheed, who lives not far from the bridge, added: “If the council opens these crossings there is a big danger that there will be more collisions and pedestrians could be injured. It really does not make any sense.”

Cllr Sandford added that he is demanding a meeting with council executive director for place and economy Steve Cox to try to get the authority to stop the crossings from opening.

But a council spokesperson said: “We have worked closely with the designer Skanska on the safety of these crossings and with others with similar designs which are operating safely across the city.

“There have been some issues in connecting the crossings to the City Fibre network. We are working through these and hope to have this resolved this week.

“We have no evidence at this stage to suggest that the collisions at this site were related to these works. This will be reviewed as part of the full Stage Three Safety Audit process due to commence shortly, once both crossing options are operating simultaneously.”