The Marple Website has been campaigning for the restoration of the Iron Bridge in Brabyns Park since the middle of last year, when we joined forces with a lady called Judith Chantler who had been campaigning since September 2000 on her own. There is a diary on the web site which charts the progress of the campaign and keeps visitors up to date with the latest developments. If you are interested in taking a look at this diary, you can find it at http://www.marple-uk.com/ironbridge.htm.

I'm writing to you on behalf of the campaign at the suggestion of Councillor Martin Candler, following a discussion with him during his surgery in Marple Library last Saturday.

Until the end of last year we were kept well informed of developments regarding the bridge by Jenny Waller, a member of your staff who has now moved on to new responsibilities. We understood from Jenny that a briefing report was being prepared on your behalf for submission to the Executive Member for Leisure & Culture, who will decide if a project to restore the bridge should be taken forward. We would like to establish the status of this report, if it has been issued and if not, when it will be.

We would also like to know if the report is a document available to the general public and if so, how we can gain access to a copy and subsequently how we could learn of the Executive Member's decision on this matter.

I hope you will be able to answer these queries for us and maybe also provide us with a contact within your staff with whom we could establish a similar relationship to that which we enjoyed with Jenny.

Whilst writing I would also like to put on record a suggestion which may be worthy of consideration by your Engineers. It occurs to me that following successful restoration of the Iron Bridge, SMBC would have a surplus Bailey Bridge on their hands. In the event that the enquiry into the bridleway rights at Roman Bridge find in favour of the claim, which on the evidence to be presented seems likely, an alternative crossing may have to be provided by SMBC to avoid alterations to the listed Roman Bridge. Is it possible that in these circumstances the Bailey Bridge could be re-used to provide a horse crossing a suitable distance away from the Roman Bridge? If this would work it may save a considerable amount of money and provide a financial argument to help support the Iron Bridge restoration.

I look forward to hearing from you on these issues and hope that a way to restore the Iron Bridge can be found before it is too late.

Please note, I obtained your e-mail address from Cllr. Candler who was not certain that it was correct, so I will follow this up with a letter if I don't receive an acknowledgement from you within a week or so, to be sure that you have received it.

Best regards,