STEPS to purchase land around Summerseat Bridge will go ahead.

Councillors approved plans to enact a compulsory purchase order around the bridge in order to continue with repairs and allow vehicles to cross.

The bridge was damaged in the Boxing Day floods in 2015 and has been closed to traffic ever since.

Councillors at the Cabinet meeting approved a plan to start the compulsory purchase process while still negotiating with both landowners.

Conservative group leader, Cllr James Daly, questioned why the council was still negotiating with one of the parties.

He said: "The one thing that has characterised this process is slowness and that nothing has been achieved. Negotiations with the party have proved utterly fruitless previously. Negotiations seem to have gone nowhere quickly. We are allowing an open-ended negotiation to go on without a stopping point and at the end of it we will be back here in six months with no compulsory purchase order."

Cllr Judith Kelly, moved to reassure Cllr Daly. She said: "The compulsory purchase order will run alongside negotiations. It has been a long time coming and we need to make sure we do get the right outcome for the residents of Summerseat."

Council leader, Cllr Rishi Shori added: "If you're negotiating with a compulsory purchase order at the same time it strengthens the negotiating position."

Councillors were told the compulsory purchase order process would likely take months and must be approved by the government.

The meeting's agenda details the council's plans for reopening the bridge. It says: "No suitable options exist that do not require third party land.

"The prospect of widening the bridge on the west side is severely constrained by the presence of a

gas main pipe utility.

"Due to the former Waterside building acting as the east parapet to Kay Street Bridge, in order to bring the structure back into use by vehicles, a new parapet would have to be installed.

"This would necessitate either reducing the carriageway width to make it even narrower than the previous width or constructing a cantilevered parapet which would require substantial alterations to the existing structure and would have aesthetic implications bearing in mind the structure is located in a conservation area."