A Sedbergh and Kirkby Lonsdale District councillor has seen red over a temporary set of traffic lights at Middleton Hall Bridge which have been in place for three years and cost council taxpayers £71,507.
The bill for maintaining the signals while the bridge has been waiting since Storm Desmond to be repaired has been provided by Cumbria’s Labour and Lib Dem County Council in a Freedom of Information reply.
The area’s district councillor, Sheila Capstick, said: “These figures will come as a huge source of anger and disappointment to locals who have had to put up with three years of disruption on the A683.
“It beggars belief that £71,000 is being spent on keeping these lights in place when all the residents want to see is the bridge repaired.”
Councillor James Airey, the Conservative Group leader on Cumbria County Council, said: “Instead of wasting council taxpayers’ cash, why doesn’t the county council just spend some of the millions of pounds it received from the Government after Storm Desmond more than three years ago to get the bridge fixed.
“It’s time Cumbria’s Labour and Lib Dem County Council stopped wasting vast amounts of cash each year on what were supposed to be temporary lights.”
