Whitby swing bridge fails again
It got stuck yesterday.
Last updated 20th Dec 2021
Whitby's Town Mayor, Councillor Linda Wild, has expressed her dismay that Whitby's historic Swing Bridge has failed again.
It happened yesterday, when the bridge stuck - trapping a charter boat bound for Scotland in the upper harbour, despite assurances from North Yorkshire County Council's Highways chiefs that the problems which beset the century old structure throughout the summer had been solved.
Speaking on Sunday, Councillor Wild said,
"The swing bridge is broken and will not open. They can’t repair it 'til Tuesday. It goes to show they haven’t fixed the issue at all; they just got lucky for a few months! I feel like we have been patted on the head and fobbed off in the hope that we would stop making a fuss.
"With less than a week to Christmas, here we are again. The town is split in two and the Harbour is paralysed. It's effectively delaying Christmas for some of the fishing community as they return home this week.
"It's just not acceptable."
Bridges Manager at the county council, Philip Richardson, said:
"Whitby Swing Bridge is currently unable to open due to the failure of a valve controlling the bridge speed. It is open to highway traffic and our team hope to put in a temporary fix tomorrow which will allow boats through. We are sourcing a replacement part to carry out a permanent fix and will keep the public updated of our progress.
"The swing bridge is serviced regularly and this issue is not related to the mechanical issues we experienced last summer when it was not possible to close the bridge.
"We recognise the importance of the swing bridge to Whitby’s economy. We have invested in upgrades and a computer monitoring system so that engineers can see a fault immediately and where possible bring the spares needed for a repair if we do not have them in stock.
"This bridge is sited in an extreme environment and operates everyday on two tides - more than any of the other moving bridges that we maintain and, like all complicated machinery, it will fail from time to time.
"We apologise for the disruption this has caused but every effort is being made to repair the issue as quickly as possible".