We seem to have a bridge problem in our part of the world. I held more surgery appointments yesterday at Kennaway House in Sidmouth.

Richard Foord, Honiton and Sidmouth MP writes for the Herald.

Once again, residents pointed out some of the challenges that our bridges face, in such places as Harpford and Ottery St Mary.

Coleridge bridge in Ottery is of particular concern. It has been used by residents of the town for years, including by school children seeking to avoid busy roads. As sunrise becomes later and sunrise becomes earlier each day, it won’t be long before school pupils are walking to and from The King’s School in the dark.

Some of our representatives have really stepped up to the plate. I have been very impressed by the tone that others have struck on the issue of Coleridge bridge – such as Councillor Jess Bailey, and the Clerk of Ottery Town Council Kerry Kennell, in their excellent letters to the Environment Agency.

Imagine my surprise when the Environment Agency wrote back to say that among the obstacles, there is The Salmon Act (1986). Cleaner rivers have few more vocal champions than me – I am very keen to see nature restored to our rivers. But are we really compromising the safety of the children of Ottery this winter because of an arcane law passed by Parliament in 1986?!

The Environment Agency writes that Devon County Council “are welcome to submit a permit for works over the winter period if they can demonstrate that it will not detrimentally impact migratory fish.” I for one will be pressing for that work to happen ASAP. It seems to me totally unreasonable that the current best case is for works to commence on the bridge no sooner than June 2025.

If bureaucratic caution and buck-passing is to blame, so too is funding. The Environment Agency had £235 million stripped from its budget when Liz Truss was Secretary of State for the Environment. The most obvious effect of this is reduced enforcement around sewage spills. Yet it has also led to challenges with bridges of the sort that we are seeing in our area.

This weekend, Kennaway House will host the amazing “Super Science Saturday”, as part of the Sidmouth Science Festival. My daughter and I attended last year and had an brilliant time; we blended craft and science, with activities like building structures out of straws. Perhaps we should employ the next generation of young bridge-builders to sort out what the adults have so far not managed to do!