Cumbrian councillors to vote on reversing infill of Victorian bridge

Planning officers advise committee to refuse road agency's application for retrospective permission

Officials have recommended that the government's roads agency should remove hundreds of tonnes of concrete it used to infill a Victorian bridge in Cumbria.

National Highways (NH) faced widespread condemnation last year after it submerged a 1862 bridge arch at Great Musgrave, near Kirby Stephen in 1,644 tonnes of gravel and concrete. It was accused of cultural vandalism" in the House of Lords, and the outcry prompted the government to pause NH's plans to infill dozens of other Victorian bridges across England.