A TWO-YEAR campaign to make a railway footbridge in Oxford wheelchair and bike-accessible looks to have been successful.

Campaigners have been fighting to get Network Rail to include ramps when it replaces the footbridge linking South Oxford and South Hinksey as part of its electrification of the railway line.

Network Rail said it could not afford to modify its plans for the new bridge – but now it is understood three councils have offered to help.

Vale of White Horse District Council leader Matt Barber said his council, Oxford City Council and Oxfordshire County Council will contribute £83,000 each.

He said: “Network Rail claimed modifying the bridge was going to cost £750,000 extra.

“But they said they would be willing to meet the bulk of the cost if the three local authorities will meet a quarter of a million between them.”

He said his council approved the spend and he thought the other two had agreed so there was no impediment to the scheme.

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He said: “It would be daft, when millions are being spent, not to get it right the first time round.”

The bridge runs from near Lake Street in South Oxford across Hinksey Lake and the railway line to South Hinksey.

Campaigner Peter Rawcliffe, who lives in the village, welcomed the news.

He said: “There is a huge community along Abingdon Road, Grandpont and South Hinksey who use the bridge to go in both directions.

“At the moment about a third of the population can’t get over it at all, or struggle to.

“I think people will be delighted.

“The discussions about design and costs are continuing, but after two years, a little longer doesn’t matter if the bridge can be used safely by everyone, now and for the next century at least.”

Mr Rawcliffe said he understood the new bridge would be built to last 125 years.

Network Rail is rebuilding the bridge and 28 others in Oxfordshire as part of its £2bn electrification of the Great Western Mainline from London.

The firm needs to raise bridges to make room for new overhead electric wires.

Oxford City Council refused to give permission for work on two bridges because the proposed designs did not have ramps.

Network Rail appealed against both decisions and won, but the council used a third bridge needing modification, Aristotle Lane, as a bargaining tool.

The council holds crucial crossing rights to that bridge, which Network Rail needs to carry out its scheme, and city council leader Bob Price said his authority would not surrender the rights unless Network Rail added ramps to the Hinksey bridges.

Network Rail spokeswoman Victoria Bradley said: “The project team is still developing the design for the reconstructed footbridge.