Teen beauty spot drinkers are ramblers, not rebels
- Dave Burrows
Ferry to run when Shrewsbury footbridge closes
Monday 16th January 2012, 3:00PM GMT.
A ferry will transport commuters across the River Severn in Shrewsbury for five months while a footbridge in the town is closed for major repairs, it was revealed this afternoon.
The 12-seater boat will run for more than eight hours a day and will cross the river between the Quarry and The Boathouse Inn.
The ferry will begin operating in March to ensure pedestrians can still get across the river when the Porthill footbridge is closed for a £450,000 refurbishment.
People will be charged 50p to cross the river on the boat, which will be staffed by two crew members and will be open every day during the closure, provisionally between 8am and 9.30am and noon and 7pm.
The owners of The Boathouse and Shropshire Council have agreed to split the running costs of the service, which will help ensure people wanting to get into the town to work or to cross the river to get to the pub can still do so without a major detour.
Fears had been raised that the closure would cost The Boathouse thousands of pounds in lost trade. But after talks with the town’s Sabrina Boats, the owners of the pub decided to launch a crossing service which has now been backed by Shropshire Council.
Tim Bennett, co-owner of The Boathouse, said: “We want to offer people an alternative to walking all the way through Frankwell when the bridge closes. It is not just for The Boathouse customers, we are doing it to help the whole community.
“There will be a small charge because it costs a lot of money to do it.”
The bridge is closing to allow essential maintenance work, such as carrying out repairs to the steelwork, grit blasting, repainting the whole bridge and replacing the timber decking.
By Catherine Ferris
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When does the bridge close?
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this will be good for tourism, with the bridge closed march-november. though i
suspect most good sailers will appreciate a mini cruise of 30 odd feet
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Why should there be a charge? shouldn’t the council foot the bill?
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IF that was the case it would come out of our tax anyway – think about it
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50p to get home? Makes you realise how cherished our bridges are. Worth it to see it restored though.
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Interesting operating times (between 8am and 9.30am and noon and 7pm)what are people supposed to do between 9.30am and noon and after 7pm? Walk on water?
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Easy just walk. There is a bridge just a little up river, I would say a distance of 500 yards or is that to far to walk.
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Walk the short distance to the Welsh bridge, one would imagine…
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Walk via either the Welsh or Kingsland Bridge!
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Very interesting. The Boathouse is part funding this to avoid losing thousands of pounds. No customers between 8-00 to 9-30. As for noon till 7-00pm, I wouldn’t imagine that was their peak period, could be wrong of course. Nothing after 7-00pm so evening trade well short.
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why can’t a temporary wooden bridge be put across, while the repairs are carried out?
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Lol what a scam , next it will 50p to go over the new bridge just another con for us to pay more money , its so sad that we fall for it again and again
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Why describe it as a ‘scam’? Someone has to pay for the cost of hiring and staffing a boat.
I don’t know what you do for a living, but I’m assuming that you don’t work for free.
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What a load of usual Shropshire rubbish, there is a working bridge called the Welsh Bridge 5 mins extra walk. Why do we get dragged into wasting money!!
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There is a hand pulled ferry between my local pub and the village across the Wye. People love it!
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Saracens Head by any chance?
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Yes! Lovely place. Btw their £4.95 child Sunday lunches are so huge we share. We are S’bury based but have a hovel in the woods.
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You can walk over the Welsh Bridge if you can’t get the ferry
Don’t expect the council to wipe your backside for you all the time
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You face a lot of criticism over your hunting Mr Ferry so it’s great to see you putting something back once in a while.
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My kind of humour Mr / Mrs / Miss Nistagmus
:-)
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Pamper to the lazy, could be why we have a fatty problem in the UK.
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‘The owners of The Boathouse and Shropshire Council have agreed to split the running costs of the service’ – So why the 50p charge?
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Presumably because it is a limited seater boat, and if it were free all that would happen is that joyriders would flock to Shrewsbury from less fortunate towns (such as Telford) to cross our river at local council tax payers’ expense. Is this what you want?
Anyway, it’s not compulsory. I live in Porthill, so the bridge closure could be an inconvenience for me, but I have a cunning plan to avoid the 50p charge. I will walk to Welsh Bridge instead.
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“if it were free all that would happen is that joyriders would flock to Shrewsbury from less fortunate towns (such as Telford) to cross our river at local council tax payers’ expense”
Damn – just when I’d told my mother in law that I was sending her on a luxury river cruise as a surprise birthday present. Still, there’s always our own stretch of the Severn in Telford – anyone know what happened to those pedalos they used to rent out in the Town Park before they drained the lake?
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:)
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