Gazette comment (From Gazette Series)

Gazette comment

IT is pretty unlikely that anybody could argue that a new Severn crossing from Sharpness to Lydney would not make certain journeys across the river much more convenient.

However, is it really worth spending, in the words of one councillor, £100 million to give everybody the privilege.

Fine, if you live in Berkeley, Dursley, Wotton-under-Edge or the surrounding area such a bridge would probably knock a good half hour off a trip to Lydney, Coleford or some parts of the Forest.

That would be great for the likes of Cam Bulldogs or Dursley Town if they had an away match at Broadwell Amateurs but surely the number of extra worthwhile journeys over a new bridge would be negligible compared with existing traffic movements in that direction.

The overwhelming majority of vehicles using the two Severn bridges heads on into South Wales rather than back into Gloucestershire.

Meanwhile, it would be just as quick to make any trips to the direction of Ross-on-Wye or Hereford via Gloucester, rather than across the bridge to Lydney.

To spend as much as £100 million on a project that would not be used by the majority of traffic heading across the river from Gloucestershire would be, to be quite blunt, absolutely insane, however attractive the bridge might look.

There are so many more projects across the county that such a vast amount of money could be spent on, assuming, of course, it were there in the first place.