Bedford Town Lock

Bedford Town Lock Bridge

An IWA member has raised concerns about the alleged lack of consultation with waterways users regarding the replacement of the bridge over Town Lock, Bedford. The low height of this and other bridges in the area has limited navigation by larger cruisers for many years. The construction of the new bridge over the lock by Bedford Borough Council in 2019 presented a golden opportunity to eliminate at least one of these obstacles. Regrettably, although the air draught was improved, it was only increased from 2.14m to 2.38m, well below the EA’s standard of 3.0m. It may well be that it was thought it was not worth raising the bridge over the lock to full height due to the navigation being restricted by other low bridges in the near vicinity.

The footbridge known as Engineers Bridge is one of the problem low bridges with an airdraught of only 2.3m. Local boating organisations have long wanted to have this bridge raised, although an opportunity to increase the headroom was also lost several years ago when the bridge structure was completely replaced. It would appear that on each occasion a bridge has been replaced the headroom was not increased because there was already another bridge with limited height nearby. Unfortunately, the problem bridges are all owned by different public bodies and there would appear to be a complete lack of awareness of the need for a co-ordinated policy when it comes to navigation matters.

Looking long into the future, the ambition is for all of these bridges to be raised to enable the largest cruisers to reach the limit of navigation on the Great Ouse at Kempston and to access the proposed Bedford & Milton Keynes Waterways Park. However, one of the problem bridges is a mainline railway crossing, the raising of which, together with the associated approach embankments, would incur eye watering costs. The existence of that bridge should not inhibit our efforts to play the long game and improve the situation elsewhere.