A nine-month closure of the historic bridge that splits the Staffordshire village of Brewood in two has left residents facing an eight-mile detour to reach shops, schools, pubs and a GP surgery just 300 yards from their homes.
The listed bridge, which carries traffic over the Shropshire Union Canal, has been shut since November after a sinkhole opened in the road surface. The hole is believed to have been caused by a leaking water pipe. Engineers later found the damage had also affected the bridge's walls and supporting columns.
The Canal and River Trust, which owns the bridge and is responsible for repairing it, had initially planned to begin work in the spring. So far only the water company Severn Trent has carried out repairs at the site, working on water and waste pipes. Locals fear it could be next year before the bridge reopens to traffic, and claim a dispute between Staffordshire County Council and the trust is behind the delays.
A village divided
Dil Griffiths, 74, a retired canal worker, described the closure as "a nightmare for everyone in the village" while waiting to collect his wife from the GP surgery on the other side of the bridge. She walks across to spare him the eight-mile detour.
"When it happened last November, we all assumed the bridge would be repaired in a few months and life would return to normal," he said. "The amount of time it's taking is ridiculous."
Phil Shepherd, a 65-year-old local heating engineer, said: "If we were in China, it would have been fixed within a week. It beggars belief that it's still closed nine months on from the collapse."
He said the delay stemmed from a dispute over responsibility. "Apparently there was a dispute over who is to blame - did the bridge movement break the water pipe, or did the leaking pipe cause the road to collapse? Quite frankly, I don't care whose fault it is, they should just work together to get it fixed as soon as possible."
Eight-mile round trips
Brewood has won the Best Kept Large Village award for south Staffordshire five times since 2017. Mr Shepherd said about 100 houses sit on the west side of the canal, with most of the village on the east.
"If someone on the west side needs to go to the shop, it's a 20-minute drive to get there," he said. "And likewise, if you live on the east side and need to go to the GP, you have the eight-mile drive to contend with. There is a single-track road that is a shorter distance, but it's only passable in a tractor."
He added that the fire station is also on the east side. "If there was an emergency, it would take them 20 minutes to get to a fire 300 yards away."
M54 traffic blamed for collapse
Chris Bish, 76, a retired English teacher who lives with his wife Bev, 67, close to the bridge in a canal-side cottage, said a closure on the nearby M54 three days before the 13ft by 6ft sinkhole appeared sent hundreds of drivers over the bridge as a detour.
"It was non-stop traffic," he said. "Then a few days later, the road started to give way. I walked across it to take a look and you could see the Tarmac moving. The next thing, there was a huge hole there."
Mr Bish said the movement of the brickwork also caused a sewage pipe on the side of the bridge to fracture, releasing effluent into the canal. Workers were carrying out repairs to the external sewage pipe on Wednesday.
Pub trade hit by closure
Philip Kavanagh, 67, landlord of The Bridge Inn, said the closure has hit takings at his canal-side pub. "We don't get the passing trade any more, because there's no way over the bridge," he said.
"My car park is full most days, not with customers but with locals using it to park up so they can go to the GPs. It's really sad seeing elderly people in their 80s have to hobble across the bridge on foot."
The centre of Brewood, eight miles north of Wolverhampton, is a conservation area because of its black-and-white timbered cottages and historic canal-side setting. The bridge itself is classified as a Grade A locally listed building, a status given to structures deemed to have special architectural, historic, archaeological or local significance. It was built by the engineer Thomas Telford in the 1830s.
What the authorities say
The Canal and River Trust acknowledged local frustration. "The bridge is nearly 200 years old, and it has taken time to fully understand the damage, investigate what happened, and agree the best way to repair it with our partners Severn Trent and Staffordshire County Council," it said in a statement.
The charity said repair plans are now with the council for approval, and three weeks of preparatory works are due to begin at the end of the month. "This will help gather some final information needed before the main repair work begins straight afterwards if the necessary approvals are gained," it said, adding that it could not yet confirm when the bridge would reopen to traffic.
Staffordshire County Council said it was "working with the CRT as a formal consultee on the repairs and want to see the bridge repaired and road opened as soon as possible."
A Severn Trent spokesman said initial repairs on a burst water pipe had been completed, and that "customer supplies have been unaffected...as we have moved water around our network." Repairs to a separate waste pipe were completed in March, he said, but a further movement of the bridge caused a secondary burst in July, which the company hoped to fix within two weeks.
