Page content section :
News releases
Support a new footbridge for Shoreham
Ref : 07/028 : Date : 13-03-2007
Support from local people could mean a new footbridge for Shoreham. The bridge is one of 129 projects around the country competing to be in the UK’s leading sustainable transport charity, Sustrans’ Connect2 project bid for lottery millions.
Connect2 is one of the projects being considered to compete for a single multi-million pound grant from the Big Lottery Fund’s Living Landmarks: The People’s Millions competition.
Towards the end of last year Adur District Council on behalf of the community applied to be part of the Connect2 project. The footbridge has succeeded in reaching the longlist and hopes to make the shortlist. Sustrans will announce this in May.
The winner will be decided by public TV vote in Winter 2007/08. Sustrans is working with partners around the UK to overcome long-standing barriers such as busy roads, railways or rivers that are dividing communities and making it difficult for people to travel by foot or bike as part of their everyday lives.
People can start supporting a new footbridge now by registering on the Connect2 website www.sustransconnect2.org.uk or by calling the Sustrans’ information line on 08450 581 373. They can also come along to Coronation Green on the 27 March at 10am when John Grimshaw, the chief executive of Sustrans, visits Shoreham.
Shoreham’s footbridge owned by West Sussex County Council was built in the1920s but is now coming to the end of its life. The footbridge is used all year around for children to walk to school, people cross it to go to work or go shopping, families use it to go to the beach. Plans for a new wider bridge would provide both footpath and cycleways.
If the footbridge makes it to the Connect2 shortlist then public support will be crucial. Connect2 is being considered alongside five other projects: The Eden Project’s dry tropics Biome, Somerset WATERLINKS, the National Museum of Science and Industry Collections Centre, The Black Country as Urban Park and Sherwood Forest – the Living Legend.
Adur Council Leader, Neil Parkin said: “Although still in the early stages we hope local people will show their support for this project. The footbridge is a much loved and used feature of the Shoreham skyline.”
A panel of experts in the areas of architecture, regeneration and the environment will judge all the projects in September 2007 and, if successful in this round, Connect2 will then be put to the public vote later in the autumn.
Ends
For more information about any of Adur's news releases please contact Adur's News Room
Go back to the 2007 News Release list
