Wear Crossing? Sunderland deserves better - and here's the name they should save chosen for the new bridge

​Underwhelming is a polite way to describe the anodyne choices being given to the Wearside public to christen this latest feat of engineering to grace the city.

In case you’ve forgotten the three choices (and they’re easily forgettable) here they are in all their glory. Behold: Keel Crossing, Beacon Bridge and Wear Crossing. You may now forget them.

The last, in particular, induces a facepalm for the ages. Wear Crossing? Really?

We are told that the great Sunderland public conjured up more than a thousand names for this new crossing over the River Wear.

The panel tasked with shortlisting the names said they were impressed by ‘the creativity shown, particularly through some of the football and history related names.’ Odd, then, that none of that supposed creativity made the final cut.

After the brilliant season the Black Cats delivered, surely some of those local heroes deserved a nod? Who would baulk at Regis Le Bridge in the glow of a season to remember for the Black Cats? How about match-winner Tommy Watson getting a Tommy Watson Way. A humorous Jobe’s Jogway or, my favourite, Span Ballard?

And that’s just football. Why not light up the bridge with names from Sunderland’s history? James Herriot Skyway? Jack Crawford Crossing or what about a tug at the heartstrings with a Bradley Lowery Cloudwalk?

Nope. Wear Crossing, we’re supposed to believe, is a reflection of the creative energy and imagination of the Sunderland public.

I get that the judges may be saving the city from mockery by rejecting funny bridge names but surely there were some suggestions that had real meaning for the city. I mean, Beacon Bridge! Give me a break.

And to believe that Keel Crossing stirringly evokes the city’s shipbuilding heritage is just too much of a stretch. Might as well call it Barnacle Bridge.

The walkway will regularly be thronged by football fans heading to the Stadium of Light. The Roker Roar Roadway would get people talking in a good way.

Plenty of people of all generations would be happy to tell the story to visitors or their grandkids about how it got its name. ‘‘Yes, it’s named after the famous Roker Roar, the sound the football fans made at the old football stadium Roker Park. That bridge now leads to the new stadium and honestly, I sometimes think it’s louder there…’

But if we really end up calling it Wear Crossing, is anyone ever going to ask why it’s called that, and if someone did ask, what could you possibly say? ‘It’s the crossing over the Wear.’ End of story.

Without wanting to pick fights, I’d hate to think that the choice of names was due to lack of imagination from the Sunderland public.

The team tasked with whittling the list down to a top three may argue that they had few names to choose from, but that doesn’t seem to be the case.

And anyway, if the people want funny, emotional or eyebrow-raising names why not let them have them? It is, after all, meant to be their choice.

It seems clear the panel wanted to dodge mockery and avoid controversy, but in doing so constructed a rickety bridge over troubled waters.

You could say they’ve put their foot in their mouth or, if you want creativity, they’ve put their Footy McFootbridge in their Mouthy McWearmouth.