The village cut off for four years by a faulty bridge (with no end in sight)

Yahoo

07-05-2025

At first glance, Forge Mews in Bassaleg, Newport, appears like any other pleasant and neighbourly suburban cul-de-sac. A mix of 19 semi-detached and terrace houses with views overlooking the green River Ebbw and the local parish church, the residents are often out chatting in their front gardens or popping to the shops on foot.
But there is one thing notably missing: cars. Since August 2021, this strip of homes has been completely cut off from vehicle access following the collapse of a bridge that once ran over the river, connecting the street to the rest of the town.
Inspectors deemed the Old Bassaleg bridge – a reinforced concrete structure built in the 1940s – completely unsafe for vehicles, meaning for the past four years residents have only been allowed to access their homes on foot. It has been, unsurprisingly, a testing time, particularly as many of the residents are elderly and suffer from poor health.
A blockade of iron barriers has been up since the bridge closed, as the council deemed it too dangerous for vehicles and residents to cross - Jay Williams
But now, in a further blow to the beleaguered home-owners, the Welsh Labour Government has refused a request from Newport city council to stump up funding for a new replacement bridge, set to be built upstream at an estimated cost of £9 million. It means no construction can start until April 2026 at the earliest (should the funding be granted in the next financial year), with a completion date for the new bridge set for not before 2028 – some seven years after the original bridge was closed.
But there is no guarantee that the funding will ever be forthcoming.
Newport city council has said it is 'disappointed' at not receiving the cash, while residents have blasted the Labour-run Welsh Government for not stumping up the money.
It has after all, in recent years, wasted public funding on myriad projects, not least £8 million on an 'international relations' budget, plus an expected £100–£120 million to increase its number of Senedd members from 60 to 96. And this is before we get onto the £33 million spent on new road signage to roll out its hated 20mph scheme across the nation.
For local Julie Saunders, a carer in her early sixties, the refusal of the Government to stump up the money is devastating. Her mother, Margaret Brooks, 91, has lived on the street for decades and is now bed-bound. 'Mum sleeps downstairs in a hospital bed, and has carers in four-times a day,' Saunders tells me outside her mother's house, overlooking the nearby river.
Julie Saunders is one of the locals most affected as she's forced to travel on foot – no matter the weather – to visit her disabled mother - Jay Williams
'She is extremely frail and I find it terrifying that there is no proper road access to her house, as there should be. Why can't the council just throw up a Bailey Bridge, like the Army does? She and the other residents have just been abandoned.'
Her distress at the situation is understandable. For the past four years, instead of parking on her mother's drive, Saunders has had to park 300 metres away on a street where cars get routinely vandalised, causing a spike in insurance premiums. Her daily visits incur a long walk over the bridge in all conditions – 'the weather in Newport can be foul' – often carrying food and heavy items for her mother.
And when her mother needs an ambulance – as she has done twice in the past four months – the situation is even worse. When the bridge first closed, council workers tore down trees and put in a gated entrance for emergency vehicles at the top end of Forge Mews, off the busy A467 bypass.
0805 Fore mews bridge closure
But, in an ongoing farce, emergency vehicles often cannot get in, due to not knowing the council code to the padlock.
'Both times I've called the ambulance, the paramedics have phoned me to say they are at the gate and can't get through as the code doesn't work,' Saunders adds.
'They just have to sit and wait until they've got through to the council. The situation is horrendous.'
Brooks is not the only one on Forge Mews who in the past few years has been in need of the emergency services.
In recent times, emergency services have been unable to reach the road as they didn't know the padlock code set by the council - Jay Williams
In December 2022, one of the properties on the street was gutted by a house fire caused by an electrical fault. In that instance, locals report the firefighters resorted to using bolt cutters to get through the gate. Another gentleman, in his sixties, has suffered a fall, and a stroke in recent months – requiring two separate ambulance call outs.
Alongside this alarm over safety, however, are the more prosaic concerns of how to live day-to-day without vehicle access the rest of society takes for granted.
'We can't get anything delivered – food, compost – and the window cleaners won't come out,' says resident Lisa Grant, who used to love her home's location next to the river and its overgrown bank.
'I have lost £30,000 off the value of my house – down from £189,000 to £159,000. I would like to move but can't with that loss of money, and who would buy here?
'And of course, we are expected to pay council tax – the full rate being £180 a month – when they don't even collect our bins from our homes and instead we have to wheel them to the end of the road.'
A few doors up, her neighbour Nansi Wells, in her seventies, is also dismayed by the nonchalant response from both Government and council officials. Indeed, it was her private land the council took 'without consultation or compensation' to install the padlocked gate for so-called emergency access.
Nansi Wells is disappointed that after four years, no progress for a new bridge has been made - Jay Williams
'The bridge was closed four years ago,' she tells The Telegraph while on her way to take rubbish to the bins. 'A new one should have been sorted by now. Both the Welsh Government and the council need to get together and just come up with the money to sort this.'
Resident Nansi Wells has to walk regularly to the smelly bin station at the end of the road because the rubbish collection can't reach her street - Jay Williams
For now, though, this does not seem feasible, with the Labour-run council clearly laying blame for the fiasco on the Welsh Government's shoulders.
It recently submitted a bid for the full £9 million needed for the construction of the new bridge, specifically asking for £6.4 million in the current financial year, and a further £2.6 million the following year.
However, it received just £1 million from the Welsh Government, a sum allocated to the 'continuation of design and survey work' for the replacement structure.
The lack of money for construction – which experts have estimated may take two years – means it could be at least 2028 before Forge Mews and its residents see a resumption of vehicle access.
This is contingent on the money being forthcoming next year – of which there is no guarantee.
In a statement to The Telegraph, the Welsh Government's Cabinet Secretary for Transport and North Wales, Ken Skates says, 'We have awarded Newport City Council £1 million to continue work on a replacement for Bassaleg Bridge.
'Future funding for local transport priorities will be awarded to schemes that support the delivery of our Regional Transport Plans.'
It adds that it will be for the Southeast Wales Corporate Joint Committee – an indirectly elected body made up of leaders of principal councils and national park authorities in the region – to 'decide if the Bassaleg Bridge scheme should be prioritised for further funding'.
And they also point out that it is down to local authorities to maintain the local road network.
Newport City Council says it is 'disappointed this bid was not successful'. A spokesman says the council submitted a bid for the 'full amount it needed to progress with the construction phrase of the project' and the award meant they were unable ot commence with construction this financial year.
He adds: 'The council will continue discussions with partner agencies about this project as we look to secure the required funding.
'We of course understand that residents of Forge Mews are concerned and frustrated about this delay. We are doing everything we can with the resources available to us to resolve this issue, and we will keep residents updated with any developments as these happen.'
And the spokesman insists that all emergency services partners know that access to Forge Mews is only available via the A467, and have been provided with the code to unlock this gate.
But Back on Forge Mews, talking to The Telegraph in the blazing sun, the beleaguered residents pivot between a sense of hopelessness and fury.
'Anything you want delivered you have to collect in a trolley from over the road,' says Ben Jones, 32, a finance worker, who lives with his dog, Dotty.
When Ben Jones had to make house renovations, it took him weeks to find builders who were willing to transport the equipment and furniture on foot across the bridge - Jay Williams
'I had a new bathroom fitted, and it took me ages to find workers who were prepared to lug the stuff all that way. I've also had to have six operations in the past three years, and of course, I have no choice but to walk over the bridge to get back to my house after them. It's all so wrong.'
But it is Grant perhaps who best sums up the mood, highlighting the physical mess the council has made of what was once a nice suburban area as indicative of the wider picture.
'Look at it,' she says, pointing to the bridge blocked off with unsightly bollards and metal railings, signs covered in graffiti and litter strewn on the river banks.
'It's appalling, and because the bridge is shut off, it now attracts anti-social behaviour. People are taking drugs and damaging cars. And of course the council doesn't care about this or reimburse us for anything.'
When does she think the bridge will get built?
'Personally, I don't think they will ever build one,' she says matter of factly. 'And I can't tell you what I think of the government or Newport City Council. It is complete and utter negligence.'
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