THE chairman of Stockton Heath Parish Council has made a fresh plea to Peel Ports to repaint the Stockton Heath swing bridge to renovate the 'eyesore'.

Cllr Celia Jordan has discussed the matter with parish councillors but admits her efforts may be in vain.

Cllr Jordan continually addressed the matter to the organisation during her time as Stockton Heath councillor before stepping down in May after 28 years but she is still determined to ensure Peel takes action, however long it takes.

"I have been asking Peel to repaint it for years now but nothing has been done so far and we will have to see whether any improvements do take place," she said.

"It is covered in so much rust and looks awful, it really is an eyesore and so many people go past it everyday.

"If anything can be done to help improve the state of the bridge then I will be delighted."

Peel has confirmed painting the bridge would cost in the region of £500,000 and said it remains 'committed' to ensuring it remains 'safe and operational'.

Aside from calls to repaint the site, the bridge caused motorists a traffic headache last Monday after breaking down yards before fully reconnecting to the road.

Traffic came to a standstill for around 30 minutes before it was moved back into its correct position.

Peel said the incident was caused by 'the day's warm weather conditions'.

A spokesman added: "High temperatures caused the steel work to expand and led to problems when positioning the bridge to let the public across.

"Despite our positive efforts to reduce the number of delays experienced by drivers, as well as regular maintenance to the bridge, this was an unavoidable issue.

"The bridge itself is 120 years old with a good record of reliability overall, so this is a highly unusual case.

"Our team worked quickly to ensure the delays were minimal and drivers were able to safely cross the bridge again within 30 minutes."

Despite the unexpected problem for motorists, a number of pedestrians still made their way over the Manchester Ship Canal via the bridge but some took a step back.