A REPLACEMENT bridge over the Murray River at Swan Hill could now be years away and discussion about where it should be placed is futile, Swan Hill’s mayor and state MP Peter Walsh have agreed.
Swan Hill Rural City Council representatives and Member for Swan Hill Peter Walsh came out of a special meeting last week in agreement that funding for a raplacement bridge would be many years, if not decades away, and debating its position now was futile.
Councillors previously voted to support the 9a option, an intermediate level lift-span upstream of the current bridge, which would have seen Riverside Park and Swan Hill’s outdoor swimming pool and courthouse relocated or redeveloped.
But following a public backlash in the September 2012 local government elections, newly elected councillors resolved to oppose the 9a option and seek alternatives.
Mayor Les McPhee defended councillors elected on an anti-9a platform, saying they had made a stand, but after discussions with other stakeholders, he felt it was “time to move on”.
“We’ve made a stand on the bridge and we keep saying that. But we’re only one party in the whole process.”
For more on this story see Monday’s edition of The Guardian (April 29, 2013).
