Marlow Bridge – feedback from today’s exhibition

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Alongside today’s Flood Fayre, there was a small room set aside for displays relating to Bucks County Council’s (BCC) plans to protect Marlow Bridge. 

Prominent in the centre of the display was a model of the new bollards.  At the time we were viewing, town Mayor Chris Funnell was questioning BCC whether there had been trials of this and any other shaped bollards to asses how they might damage cars who slightly misjudged the approach. There had been none(!) – and the mayor strongly suggested they do some mock ups and get some real data.  He also flagged up the size and shape of the proposed bollard could easily cause vehicles to get stuck – causing dramatic gridlock.

Have your say!

We strongly suggest if you have questions to ask, or have anything to say on the matter, get down to Court Garden House before 8pm. There is no sort of formal consultation on this, BCC are using today to gauge public opinion.

The plans in summary

This is what we picked up from discussions and the displays

  1. Proposed larger bollards go in from 22nd October – priority is to prevent HGVs passing
  2. A detailed structural survey to assess if bridge can definitely take heavier cars. (It is believed, based on work so far, that heavier domestic vehicles  could freely pass without damage)
  3. If it can take heavier traffic, proposal would be for a higher limit (4 or 5t?), ie to decriminalize the passage of larger domestic vehicles.  BUT this is not allowed under current law (you can have 3t or 7.5t, nothing in between), so this would require a change in legislation to be lobbied for.
  4. A deterrent would still be needed for HGVs and larger vehicles etc…. eg the bigger bollards.

So… what about…?

  • Height restriction? This was considered, but it is not actually legal to have these on public highways. Generally they are seen on private land – eg car parks.
  • ANPR  – This is possible, but is not being favoured by BCC at this stage. They are focusing on physical measures to stop HGVs, rather than deterrents for “smaller” vehicles – in fact they hope to increase the limit so many of the current “illegal” cars would be allowed to cross.

Photos of key exhibits

There was a bit more to see than this (eg re thre original Girteka lorry crossing) , but these are the main exhibits relating to the present and future …..  

 

 

 

 

Article author: Paul Merchant

About the author: Founded MyMarlow.co.uk in its original version back in 2000 - yes the internet DID exist back then. Brought up in Marlow, went to school here, now has children at the same schools. Quite clearly loves all things Marlow - hence spending over 2 decades doing this!

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