A NEW railway bridge described as “one of the greatest acts of rural vandalism imaginable” has undergone a make-over in a bid to make it more aesthetically pleasing.

In February of last year, a new £1.2 million railway bridge, in School Hill Road, was unveiled by Network Rail replacing the original structure, but proved deeply unpopular with the Brinkworth community, who labelled it a bottle green “monstrosity” and likened it to a “recycled tin can”.

This hugely unpopular design replaced the attractive brick and stone bridge from the Brunel era with a modern structure as part of Network Rail’s electrification project. which has seen many road bridges over the railway either dismantled and rebuilt entirely, or raised higher to accommodate the new overhead electric lines needed for the new high-speed trains.

But, thanks to the work of the parish council and North Wiltshire MP James Gray, who said the previous design was “one of the greatest acts of rural vandalism imaginable”, Network Rail has replaced that design with a more aesthetically pleasing one, bring an end to months of campaigning by the parish council for Network Rail to rethink their design.

Chairman of Brinkworth Parish Council, Elizabeth Threlfall, said: “We are delighted and somewhat relieved to be shot of the old hideous green design with this much more reasonable grey one.

“Much of the village and the parish council are generally pleased on the whole with the replacement as it blends in well and is quite cleverly done.

“I want to say a big thank you to Mr Gray for his extremely helpful and supportive work. We felt very much aggrieved that other towns were getting nice bridges and yet we were getting this ugly one.

“Before he came along Network Rail dismissed our concerns over the designs. You could not drive over the wretched thing without shuddering.”

Following a campaign from Mr Gray last year, Network Rail pledged to consider various alternatives to improve the quality of the iron structure.

The Conservative MP asked whether a cladding of brick or stone could be added to lessen the structure’s impact on its rural surroundings.

The parish council also set up a specially formed bridge sub committee, led by resident Martin Evans, in opposition to the designs.

“We are glad that Network Rail changed their minds on this after initially giving us no say in the matter,” added Mrs Threlfall.

“Not everyone is going to be convinced by it but the alternative was so much worse and was completely out of place in this picturesque village. It was such an inappropriate design in a rural setting.

Mrs Threlfall added: “We have fought the fight and we are happy it is pretty much done and dusted now. After a meeting or two with Network Rail we can finally close a chapter on this and move on.”