NEWPORT’S landmark city centre footbridge over the River Usk is closed today as part of cleaning efforts.

As we reported last month Newport City Council announced the bridge would be closed at some point in April, but did not specify exactly when the closure would take place.

Today the bridge was closed without warning, and it will be closed every week day for two weeks from 8am to 4pm, according to the council. 

The council explained the short notice was due to a marine licence being issued by Natural Resources Wales on the evening of Friday, April 6. 

But now some people living and working in the area are unhappy at the lack of notice provided.

The leader of Newport City Council, Cllr Debbie Wilcox, has responded on social media.

When it was anounced it was said the temporary closure order would apply for no more than six months. It also said it was anticipated the cleaning would take no longer than four weeks.

A council spokeswoman said at the time: “Unfortunately, it will not be possible to carry out this complex operation without closing the bridge for some of the time.

“However, this will involve partial or full closures, depending on the work being carried out at the time, during the daytime.”

She added the council recognised the bridge cannot be cleaned “as regularly as might be liked” due to cost pressures."

Traders previously voiced concern over the impact the closure would have on businesses in the area.

Today, business owners on the Eastern side of the River Usk, who rely on foot traffic over the bridge, said they were frustrated at not having any warning that the bridge would close today.

Ann Marie Lee, 28, general manager of Hi Coffee Cosmo, said:

“We weren’t told any definite dates. First, we were told it would be closed for a month, then we were told it would be closed for two weeks.

“I found out this morning that it would be shut today, so it was really late notice.

“We don’t have solid information. I’m surprised that they didn’t senda notice around. Everything is so uncertain.

“We could have told our customers, as probably a lot of them didn’t know this was going to happen.

Gavin Horton, owner of Horton’s Coffee House, said: “We didn’t get any notice at all.

“We weren’t told until after they had started it. I phone Debbie Wilcox this morning and some council officers came to see me about an hour after I spoke to her.

“The first inkling I had was when I came into work this morning and saw the barriers leaning up against the hand railings.

“We’re going to miss the lunch time traffic and our regular customers who walk across the bridge. It’s unrealistic to expect people to walk 15 minutes more out of their way on their lunch breaks by using the other bridges.

“I’ve watched a number of cyclists almost crash into the barriers because they come around at speed and aren’t aware it has been put up.

“I’m not suggesting elected councillors have done anything wrong, but I do think the council officers have let us down.

“If we knew we might have been able to come up with some way of ferrying people from one end to the other. Perhaps a bike-gondola or something. We could have even made an event of it and raised some money for charity. But there was just no notice.”

A Council spokesperson said: “We know many people wanted us to clean the City Footbridge, however due to the timing in which the license was issued we had insufficient time to get our usual forms of information into the public domain.  However, officers from the Council visited local businesses today and notices have been erected.

“This is the first closure for maintenance in 12 years and once finished the bridge will look as impressive as ever.

“We hope people understand why we had to start work quickly and thank everyone for their patience while the bridge is closed for the works to go ahead.”