National Highways will have to remove hundreds of tons of concrete from a Victorian bridge in Cumbria after retrospective planning permission was turned down.

ITV reports National Highways was asking for retrospective permission after they used concrete and gravel to fill in an arch in order to strengthen it.

The action was criticised in the House of Lords as “cultural vandalism”.

The agency said the decision to fill in the bottom of the Great Musgrave Bridge near Warcop was taken due to safety reasons, but many campaigners claimed it just needed small repairs – and would have been far cheaper to repoint.

National Highways will now have to go in and get rid of all the concrete and gravel they had put under the bridge.

The Historic Railways Estate says Great Musgrave in Cumbria had “a delightful masonry arched bridge” which was infilled despite National Highways’ own engineer recording it as presenting no significant risk to public safety.

(Picture – HRE)