REDUCING Cookham Bridge to single-file traffic will cause 18 months of misery, say parish councillors.

The 130-year-old bridge, on the A4094, is crumbling and engineers want to close it in 18 months so major repairs can be carried out for five months.

It has had a 7.5 tonne weight limit for the past 13 years but engineers have said this is not enough.

The bridge is now so rusty the Royal Borough of Windsor and Maidenhead has agreed to reduce it to single-file traffic almost immediately. But Cookham Parish councillors want engineers to keep two lanes flowing and impose a five tonne limit instead.

Parish council chairman Tony Prichard said: "We are asking it to reduce it to five tonnes and keep two-lane traffic, otherwise it will be 18 months of misery and inconvenience before the repairs are even started."

The council gave its views to Stephen Brown, engineering services manager at the royal borough, on Tuesday, when he gave councillors and the public a presentation on the state of the bridge. He said that if nothing was done, it would last another 15 years and would then have to be pulled down. He said that if the bridge was repaired, it would have a life of about 50 years.

Mr Brown promised to pass on the ideas for changing the weight limit.

Cllr Pritchard added he was pleased that the parish council had made new links with the highways department after it was reported the parish authority had not been informed of the possible closure until a press release had been issued.

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