Why was Sunderland bridge centrepiece moved in secret?

Yet again, our council making decisions to suit themselves and not even bothering to canvass opinion from residents.

I, and many other residents who I have come across at the development site in the past year or so, would have made the effort to be present at some part of the route, camera in hand and genuinely-interested in this development.

Paul Watson claims that the decision was made to reduce health and safety risks, to avoid people “congregating, in the dark, along the riverbank”, and that this was “the right decision and something that could not be avoided”. This was, surely, just an easier option for them, a measure of the arrogance of Sunderland Council and an insult to all residents who have managed to live their lives safely around the banks of the Wear.

At 5am on a Thursday, it would surely have amounted to perhaps a few hundred residents taking a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to see something worthwhile happen in Sunderland.

I am sure our councillors will have an all-expenses-paid celebration planned for the select few at the opening of the new bridge next spring, while the rest of us make do with the scraps that they are happy for us to have.

Kevin Thompson