VIDEO: Bridge opening marks end of saga

A handful of people gathered on a new £6.2m bridge and road across the River Calder this week to celebrate its official opening.
NAMING CEREMONY May Jennings officially opens the Calder Span bridge.NAMING CEREMONY May Jennings officially opens the Calder Span bridge.
NAMING CEREMONY May Jennings officially opens the Calder Span bridge.

But May Jenning’s simple act of cutting a ribbon marked a significant moment for many in Earlsheaton.

For years they endured noise and destruction caused by wagons aiding the £25m upgrade of Mitchell Laithes waste water treatment works.

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They campaigned alongside local Labour councillors and then MP Shahid Malik for an alternative route to take site traffic away from their narrow residential streets.

NAMING CEREMONY May Jennings officially opens the Calder Span bridge.NAMING CEREMONY May Jennings officially opens the Calder Span bridge.
NAMING CEREMONY May Jennings officially opens the Calder Span bridge.

On Wednesday – the 85th anniversary of the original site’s opening – Yorkshire Water (YW) closed the old Long Lane entrance and fully opened the Calder Span.

Coun Paul Kane (Lab, Dews East) hailed the day as a “victory for people power”.

The honour of naming the eagerly awaited bridge fell to 77-year-old Mrs Jennings, who read about a naming competition in the Reporter.

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Fittingly, Mrs Jennings’s husband grew up on the Mitchell Laithes site where his father was an engineer and the couple live in Long Lane. “It’s a private bridge but we’ve watched it grow,” she said. “We’re really impressed with it. It’s a lot quieter now.”

The 161 metre Calder Span, which is accessed via Mill Street East in Savile Town, is the first bridge YW has ever commissioned.

Project manager Simon Balding said: “It’s only been possible with the patience and involvement of communities on both sides of the river.”

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