As a walker I was pleased to read (Gazette, December 21, 'Flood-hit bridge reconnects parishes') that Fisherman's Bridge, near Sedbergh, has been reinstated two years after being destroyed in Storm Desmond.
However, I can't help but compare this welcome progress with the total lack of any development to reopen the near-identical New Road to Gooseholme bridge in Kendal, also made unsafe and closed by 'Desmond'.
If one were to compare the cumulative 'lack of amenity' caused by the absence of Fisherman's and Gooseholme bridges then the case to reinstate Gooseholme would be much the stronger of the two.
Fisherman's Bridge serves a few leisure walkers per day whereas Gooseholme was used by hundreds each day to get to work, to shop, and to access the main green space in Kendal.
We are told that Gooseholme bridge can only be reopened, some time in or after 2018, as part of a total re-think of flood defences in the town. Why? No imaginable changes to any flood defences would make any difference to a simple, single span or single pillar replacement.
The reason that Fisherman's Bridge has been replaced is that interest groups such as Friends of the Lake District, walking groups and the national park authority have badgered Cumbria County Council until the work was done; 'the squeaking wheel gets the oil'. The message is clear for the people of Kendal.
Ian Kell
Mealbank
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