Plans for £3.3m bridge over railway station in Havant is given the go-ahead

Since the project was granted planning permission in December last year, the council said it would find ways of funding the project. During peak times the level crossing can be down for as much as 30 minutes per hour – causing traffic congestion for residents moving through the town.

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Councillor Alex Rennie, leader of the council said: ‘Since taking over as leader, I have made delivering this project one of my top priorities. While we still hope that partners will step forward with further funding, we are giving the project the green light by committing to the funding shortfall.

‘The footbridge is desperately needed as the level crossing effectively cuts Warblington and Denvilles in two when it closed.

‘Often pedestrians are stuck for some time and it can mean people are late for appointments, for school or even for the train they are hoping to catch.

‘This leads to a temptation for people to slip between the gates and try to make their way across the tracks. That is extremely dangerous and the new footbridge will make Warblington and Denvilles a safer community.’

The council has pledged to pay for the project using £2.7m of available funding including £2.1 from the council’s community infrastructure levy.

Opposition councillor Phil Munday says he supports the project but ‘it should have happened about eight years ago’.

He said: ‘The issue is that this is very slow and very late, and prices have gone up. The big problem used to be children going to Warblington School and crossing the railway – at peak periods there was an excess of 100 children waiting for the crossing to open.

‘They changed that because they opened a footpath down the side of the school so most of that traffic actually isn’t happening now.

‘My point is that they’re so slow that they missed the boat but I think they owe it to the residents to finish the job.’

The council has commissioned Network Rail to design the bridge – a diversity impact assessment will also be conducted to discover how a bridge may affect wheelchair users or people with other disabilities.