Cotswold Chatterblog

Two South Warwickshire Villages have had an enforced separation by the River Stour for 67 years

The adjoining parishes of Alderminster and Whitchurch, near Stratford upon Avon, used to be connected by a footbridge over the River Stour.

This footbridge was destroyed in February 1940 during a hard winter when the river flooded and blocks of ice and other debris washed the wooden bridge away. ( the floods in July 2007 may have had the same effect )

Warwickshire County Council have a statutory duty to assert and protect the rights of the public to use and enjoy public footpaths and both parishes have been requesting a replacement bridge over the river so that the parisioners could use the public footpath again.(Public Footpath SD61)

It appeared that everything was going well when permission was given for the original line of the footpath to be diverted to the site of the proposed new bridge which was to be built on a secure part of the riverbank as The Environment Agency would not permit the construction of a replacement footbridge on the current route of the footpath due to erosion of the river banks over time (67 years)

However, at the same planning enquiry, the inspector concluded that the new bridge should not exceed two metres in width. The new bridge design is 1.4 metres wide but the buttresses at each end exceed the width limit by ten centimetres.

So it is back to the drawing board. Watch this space. How many more years must the villagers wait before they can visit one another.  Â

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