THE people of Bradford on Avon have told the town council they don’t want the proposed cable stay footbridge in the town.

The result of the poll, which asked the town’s 4,487 households whether they’d like the cable stay bridge or no bridge at all, was revealed on Tuesday night at an extraordinary full town council held in St Margaret’s Hall.

The consultation turnout was 61 per cent with 2,753 householders having their say – 42.6 per cent of people voted in favour while 57.4 per cent voted against.

In a heated debate town councillors made their views known about the best course of action for the future.

Mayor Peter Leach said: “Now we all know this information, we have got to decide whether we want to proceed with another course of action or kick it into the long field.”

There were mixed opinions among town councillors present at the meeting.

Cllr Jonathan Brown said: “I think it’s right we have consulted the people of the town and we should respect the public’s views.

“I have mixed feelings as we have lost an opportunity which is sad, but I am not surprised by the result as we are still in difficult financial times and that’s why many may have reservations.”

Bradford Bridge Concern spokesperson John Seekings said he hoped the town council would speak with Bradford Preservation Trust to consider the two groups’ alternative Unity 3 bridge design, which was not on the consultation documents.

Mr Seekings said: “Overall, it was a satisfactory result. Now the next matter is what will happen with the unity bridge. We hope the town council will listen to the preservation trust and take it forward.

“In the short term, we are considering ideas to make the town more pedestrian-friendly like, for example, installing a gateway on the town’s bridge, increasing pavement width, allowing one set of traffic to travel across at one time with priority being given to one side while the other side allows them cross, this would be a sensible short-term alternative.”

Mr Seekings said he was happy with the margin of support their ‘vote no’ campaign received with 1,566 votes cast against the cable stay bridge and 1,164 for it with 23 invalid papers returned by the 2,753 households that replied.

Cllr Malcom Hewson put forward a proposal to halt work on a bridge, which will be considered at this week’s full town council meeting, but then vowed to continue campaigning for the cable stay bridge to be built.

He said: “As a private individual I will continue outside this chamber to campaign for this bridge.

“This project for this town council should now stop, but as an individual human being I’m going to campaign to start it up again in the future.”

Preservation trust chairman David Moss said: “The extraordinary meeting was rather bizarre but the result show people agree with us.

“Now the next step is speaking to the public to see if there’s interest in getting the unity bridge considered.

“I’m sure if we launched a survey in the town, the cable stay people will argue against it, but one would argue they’ve already lost.”

The future of the bridge project will be discussed tomorrow at a full town council meeting in the offices next to St Margaret’s Hall at 7pm.