Blackweir Bridge to close as people ignore social distancing rules

The Blackweir Bridge that is used to cross the River Taff in Cardiff’s Bute Park area is set to be shut by Cardiff Council.

Despite clear warnings asking the public to adhere to social distancing measures, they are continually being ignored, leaving the council with little choice but to close the bridge. The warnings had asked people to only cross the bridge in one direction due to the narrowness of the bridge crossing, which makes it difficult to keep two metres apart.

Teams from Cardiff’s park services will continue their joint patrols with South Wales Police across the city’s parks and green spaces.

Cllr Bradbury said: “Our parks team have responded fantastically to the current situation and I’d like to thank them for the flexible approach they’ve shown to their work. We’ve been pleased with the public’s behaviour in our parks over the past few weeks, the vast majority of people seem to be heeding the message to stay home, stay safe and to maintain social distancing if they are using our parks and I very much hope that will carry over into our cemeteries.”

The Council has recently taken action to ensure social distancing is maintained at Roath Park Lake, introducing a one-way system around the perimeter, and plans have also been agreed today to temporarily close Blackweir Bridge.

Cllr Bradbury continued: “Signs asking people to only cross in one direction at a time and maintain social distancing have been in place at Blackweir Bridge for some weeks now. We’ve spent a lot of time monitoring the area, along with our colleagues from South Wales Police, trying to reinforce that message, but unfortunately despite clear warnings that not doing so could result in the closure of the bridge, the message is not being heeded.

“We’ve been looking at a variety of possibilities to try to keep the bridge open, but the reality is that maintaining a two metre distance is very difficult on a bridge that is only just over one metre wide.

“Maintaining this route across the river would require significant staff resources, resources that are currently limited due to the ongoing situation, and could be used to greater public benefit elsewhere – particularly when there are much wider nearby bridges available to the north and the south, where it is much easier to cross the river whilst keeping a safe distance.

“We appreciate this may cause some inconvenience and we’ll continue to review the situation with a view to re-opening the bridge as soon as realistically possible.”