Wednesday, March 24, 2010
£4.5m for a footbridge!
Go Delme boy, just £4.5m for a 140 metre bascule footbridge and I have not yet received my Cardiff County Council community charge bill for the year starting April 2010. No doubt I will see a considerable increase in my community charge as Cardiff County Council are putting forward £1.3m towards this footbridge. This new footbridge will be called the Pont y Werin and will open to the public on June 8 to enable pedestrians and cyclists to cross between Penarth and the International Sports Village at Cardiff Bay. Cardiff Council ran a competition to name the bridge, and the Penarth Woodcraft Folk's suggestion won. In English, the name translates to "Bridge of the People". Cardiff council’s transport chief Delme Bowen said: “Pont y Werin is a fantastic project and as chairman of the Pont y Werin steering group I have been fortunate to see all the pieces of the project coming together.” The bridge was funded with £1.645m from the Assembly Government, £1.3m from Cardiff council, £1.15m from Sustrans, £250k from the harbour authority and £200k from the Vale council.
£4.5m is an awful lot of money for a footbridge. Oh yes, it will be very nice for tourists to stroll across as they enjoy their visit to Cardiff Bay but with increasing obesity among the population I cannot imagine many tourists walking all the way from the Pier Head to Penarth and back. The only legitimate use for this bridge is people in Penarth who want to come across to Cardiff Bay on foot or a bicycle, I suspect those numbers to be very low indeed! Out of interest Barney and I will be walking this super new £4.5m footbridge when it opens to the public. I and the rest of the community have paid for this new footbridge, so I feel obliged to walk it.
Go Delme boy, just £4.5m for a 140 metre bascule footbridge and I have not yet received my Cardiff County Council community charge bill for the year starting April 2010. No doubt I will see a considerable increase in my community charge as Cardiff County Council are putting forward £1.3m towards this footbridge. This new footbridge will be called the Pont y Werin and will open to the public on June 8 to enable pedestrians and cyclists to cross between Penarth and the International Sports Village at Cardiff Bay. Cardiff Council ran a competition to name the bridge, and the Penarth Woodcraft Folk's suggestion won. In English, the name translates to "Bridge of the People". Cardiff council’s transport chief Delme Bowen said: “Pont y Werin is a fantastic project and as chairman of the Pont y Werin steering group I have been fortunate to see all the pieces of the project coming together.” The bridge was funded with £1.645m from the Assembly Government, £1.3m from Cardiff council, £1.15m from Sustrans, £250k from the harbour authority and £200k from the Vale council.
£4.5m is an awful lot of money for a footbridge. Oh yes, it will be very nice for tourists to stroll across as they enjoy their visit to Cardiff Bay but with increasing obesity among the population I cannot imagine many tourists walking all the way from the Pier Head to Penarth and back. The only legitimate use for this bridge is people in Penarth who want to come across to Cardiff Bay on foot or a bicycle, I suspect those numbers to be very low indeed! Out of interest Barney and I will be walking this super new £4.5m footbridge when it opens to the public. I and the rest of the community have paid for this new footbridge, so I feel obliged to walk it.
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