Aberdeenshire councillors debate King Edward area bridge restoration petition
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Aberdeenshire Council’s Infrastructure Services Committee recently heard and debated a petition raised with regards to Gorrachie Bridge in the King Edward area.
Some 451 people signed the petition which asked that the council reinstate the funding previously allocated for the rebuilding of the Gorrachie Bridge, which was destroyed in an extreme rainfall event in the King Edward area back in September 2019.
The petition asked the council to increase the level of investment in the maintenance, repair and renewal of bridges that carry the local public road network in order that more bridgeworks across Aberdeenshire can be undertaken annually.
Councillors also heard from petitioner Caroline Close who gave a very well-received verbal presentation to committee.
Six bridges in the King Edward area were lost during the exceptional flooding in 2019, with five of the bridges having now been replaced, namely Millcroft, Mill of Balmaud, North Litterty, Bruntyards and Bridge of Fortrie.
Additional funding was provided for council infrastructure in 2022/2023 through the IF1 and IF2 funding streams which recognised the backlog of bridge works required.
However, due to later budgetary constraints, this funding was revised in 2023/2024.
The consequence of this reduction was highlighted in the petition and presentation to ISC particularly regarding the resulting effect from breaks in the road network on rural areas.
Caroline said: "The Gorrachie Bridge replacement remains on Aberdeenshire Council's very long work-bank list, but unfortunately funding is not sufficient for this project (and indeed many others) despite assurances until late 2022 that it would go ahead.
"In order to keep the issue on the Council's agenda, we compiled a petition with 451 signatures, which we presented to committee.
"We needed to bring back to attention to the situation and highlight it is reaching a critical point, but people are not aware of the true scale of the backlog.
"People would be shocked by the scale of repairs needed across the north-east.
"From large structures such as Banff bridge down to quite small ones that you would think being a problem would be rated higher for fixing, but priority model gives less to rural areas and small bridges are at the bottom of the pile."
She noted: "Yes the council is underfunded with a lot less per head than other councils and subject to high financial pressures but they also have to account for own spending decision and in my talk to councillors I highlighted that the newly refurbished outdoor centre at Monymusk is accessed by two bridges on the list neither of which qualify for repair and one of which has been at red status since May.
"Doesn't make sense to do it up when you can't be sure access is viable.
"What we are seeing is a comprehensive hollowing out of rural communities and this i to important to let lie."
There are 1311 bridges carrying Aberdeenshire’s 3500-mile long local public road network, of various ages, sizes, construction materials, structural arrangements and subsidiary components such as deck joints, parapets and waterproofing.
Aberdeenshire Council’s bridges workbank prioritisation tool has been developed to assist the council in undertaking strategic investment planning.
The prioritised list, featuring a running cost total, provides the opportunity for a multi-year investment programme to be established for timely bridge maintenance, repair and ultimately renewal at end of service life.
The workbank is a live document and is updated if the condition of bridges, network resilience or the road criticality changes.
It also gives an indication of the funding required to bring all bridges up to an acceptable condition – currently estimated at £100 million. The results of the latest update were also provided to the ISC Committee on January 25.
Members heard that the replacement of Bridge of Gorrachie is currently number 27 on the prioritised list.
Following the committee discussions, ISC chair Cllr Alan Turner said: “I would like to thank the petitioner Caroline Close for her excellent presentation to committee and for highlighting the difficulties we, as a council, continue to face in these challenging financial conditions.
“Aberdeenshire Council is faced with difficult decisions in trying to fairly balance ever more pressing needs across all its services and that is why our bridges workbank prioritisation programme is so critical to the careful planning and allocating of our financial resources.”
Caroline added: "This is a crisis a long time in the making.
"Factions within the council view the failure of such bridges as an opportunity to divest from parts of the network, rural road by rural road.
"Figures obtained via FOI show the current list of bridges requiring maintenance or replacement runs to 58, totalling an estimated £74.5m, however the total overall capital spend on bridges last year was only £3.189m
"In 2021 and 2022 extra council tax was levied on all residents to create infrastructure funds in order to tackle this immense backlog of maintenance, but in 2023/24 only 10 per cent of those funds were allocated to bridge maintenance.
"Residents of King Edward lost six bridges in 2019 to flash flooding, but due to the continued underfunding of the bridges policy and despite repeated commitments, are still waiting for the last bridge to be replaced at Gorrachie.
"Gorrachie bridge is on the list, with an estimated cost of £500k, but with higher priority bridges further up the list, more being added all the time, and existing projects worsening, the current level of funding simply won’t stretch that far.
"And it’s only the tip of the iceberg.
"An increasing number of communities across Aberdeenshire are being affected in the same way, with six more bridges newly designated black (collapsed, closed or weight restricted) since May 2023, with far reaching consequences for economic development, social cohesion and rural poverty. "
