A VILLAGE says it will continue to fight moves to axe the weight limit on a bridge so lorries can start using it again.

Lorries weighing more than 7.5 tonnes have been banned from going over the Clacton Road bridge in Weeley for years.

The detours are costing some businesses thousands of pounds a year.

Highways engineers now say the bridge is “safe and perfectly sound”, paving the way for it to be reopened to HGVs.

But Weeley Parish Council is set to campaign against the weight limit being ditched.

Vice-chairman Carol Bannister said: “It has always been considered unsafe.

“Over the years, it’s had little bits of remedial work done, but there is nothing to convince us it is any safer than when the weight limit was first brought in.

“It was considered a weak bridge and we haven’t been given any information to make us think that has changed.”

Mrs Bannister said the structure suffered from “concrete cancer”.

“It is in a state of gradual deterioration,” she said. “It was diagnosed with what they call concrete cancer some years ago.

"It was agreed that keeping the weight limit would prevent an increase in the deterioration which is happening.”

But Mrs Bannister said the village would fight the proposals.

“We will never give way,” she said. “It’s an ongoing battle and we will continue to object to the very end.”