PLANS to rebuild a bridge partially swept away in the Boxing Day 2015 floods have moved a step closer.

Bury Council’s planning committee unanimously approved the authority’s application to widen Kay Street Bridge, in Summerseat, so it can once again carry traffic over the River Irwell.

The bridge reopened to pedestrians in March 2016, but the demolition of The Waterside inn after it suffered severe flood damage, left it with no permanent barrier on the upstream side.

Protracted negotiations with a landowner have delayed work on the rebuild and compulsory purchase order papers were recently served.

David Giblin the council’s head of engineering told the committee work to widen the bridge and install a new barrier was essential.

He said: “The nature of the road network is such that neither of the two through routes — Waterside Road and Railway Street — on their own is suitable for the volume of traffic wishing to pass through the village.”

He added that both routes were far from ideal due to their “narrow widths, tight bends and steep gradients”.

Mr Giblin also said that, since the bridge closed to traffic, an “increased burden” had been placed on the remaining route.

And he noted that traffic was now routed past Summerseat Methodist Primary School, in Rowlands Road.

Mr Giblin told the committee: “Reopening the bridge will return traffic in the village to the status prior to 2015 and remove additional traffic congestion and safety risks created on the alternative route.”

The committee also heard that widening the bridge to separate pedestrian and vehicle traffic was necessary to improve safety.

And Mr Giblin added that creating a new barrier would “significantly reduce the available width of the carriageway if built within the existing footprint of the bridge, rendering this option impractical as insufficient width would then be made for vehicles”.