A long-awaited restoration of the Tyne Bridge will pose the biggest ever risk to Newcastle’s famous kittiwake colony, a conservation group has warned.
City council bosses are planning a huge refurbishment of the dilapidated bridge, with hopes that the government will soon approve £40m of funding to restore the North East icon to its former glory. But, as local authority officials make preparations for what would be the crossing’s first major maintenance in two decades, they have been urged to take action to protect the hundreds of sea birds that nest there.
The Tyne is home to the world’s furthest inland breeding colony of kittiwakes and more than half of that population, more than 1,000 pairs, reside on the bridge and its towers. Volunteer group Kittiwakes upon the Tyne is calling for a new artificial nesting site to be built to house kittiwakes that become displaced by the restoration works, which will take at least two years to complete, as was done on the Gateshead side of the river when the Baltic Flour Mill was being redeveloped.
