Bridges backlog causes concern

A COUNCILLOR has hit out over a backlog of essential inspections of bridges across the region, and warned: “What happens if there’s another Kirkcudbright Bridge (situation)?”

Dumfries and Galloway Council chiefs recently admitted they are failing to meet structural and safety compliance checks for the area’s 1500 bridges, with a backlog of inspections piling up.

It also emerged the bridges and structures team has dropped from 15 to ten in recent years – and that posts were deleted without explanation.

This comes a year after Kirkcudbright Bridge was suddenly closed due to structural and safety issues. It now operates with traffic restrictions and needs to be replaced.

The inspections issue was discussed by elected members at the council’s economy and infrastructure committee last week.

Commenting, Cllr Linda Dorward said: “The report says we’ll meet our statutory duties in terms of the general principal programme during 2026/27, but what happens if we have another Kirkcudbright Bridge?

“Because we don’t know what’s coming up. There are going to be surprises here – despite the fact that we don’t want surprises.”

She added: “I’ve got serious concerns about the size of the team and the fact we’ve got agency staff who could probably go at any time.

“What are we doing about workforce planning? What are we doing about moving forward and putting people back into this depleted team?”

The council is now being forced to seek external specialist support to address non-compliance with regulations and will carry out a review of the bridges and structures team.

Karen Brownlie, the council’s assistant director of transport and infrastructure, confirmed the essential posts were deleted several years ago as part of a budget savings process.

She added: “I can’t confirm why that was agreed at that time. However, what I would say going forward for transport and infrastructure is that we are in the process of developing our people plan for the whole of the service, which obviously includes engineering design.

“That is looking at the workforce, it’s looking at succession planning, and everything that you highlighted there.”

As of the last review update in November, just 73 percent of general/principal bridge inspections had been completed.