Burying of Victorian bridge in Cumbria must be reversed, says council

Campaigners had argued the bridge was structurally sound and required only inexpensive repointing repairs to make it safe. Photograph: @theHREgroup/Facebook

The government’s road agency will be forced to remove hundreds of tonnes of concrete it used to bury a Victorian bridge arch despite offering a £450,000 sweetener to allow the controversial scheme to stay.

Eden district council’s planning committee resisted the offer by unanimously deciding to refuse National Highways (NH) retrospective planning permission for a crude infilling project at Great Musgrave, Cumbria, that was widely condemned as “cultural vandalism”.