Poster campaign launched by Bridgnorth Cliff Railway staff in row over unsafe wall
Drivers and engineers made redundant from the Bridgnorth Cliff Railway have started a poster campaign around the town.
The Shropshire market town's funicular railway was closed over safety fears in December when a damaged retaining wall was discovered to pose a health and safety risk.
Following the closure, director of the Cliff Railway, Malvern Tipping, "reluctantly" made 14 out of 16 staff members redundant.
Bridgnorth Town Council is currently assessing its "substantive position" to work out whether it is responsible for the repairs to the retaining wall and is expected to announce an update in the coming weeks but has already said the wall is unlikely to be repaired before Easter.
The suggestion that the wall is the not the council's responsibility has led to Mr Tipping claiming they were attempting to "wriggle out" of its responsibilities.
Now some of the drivers who were made redundant when the Cliff Railway was closed have begun a poster campaign, and are urging businesses and residents to display them in their windows to prompt the town council into action.
The poster reads: "Bridgnorth says to the Town Council: Fix your wall! We need our Cliff Railway."
Peter Bridger, one of the drivers who was made redundant and has helped organise the poster campaign, said: "We were not going to just sit by and do nothing.
"We have had these posters printed ourselves and we intend to ask everybody we can to put them in their windows.
"The railway has been closed for around 60 days now and in that time the Town Council has done nothing.
"We need the railway repaired so we can get back to work."
Clare Turner, the Town Clerk at Bridgnorth Town Council, who only took over the post in December, just before the damage to the wall was discovered, has said the Council was still working out its "substantive position" and were waiting on a report from engineers.
Councillors are expected to be given a verbal update on progress of repairs to the retaining wall to the Cliff Railway at the next Bridgnorth Town Council meeting on Tuesday, February 21, although press and public are likely to be excluded.
