A Ramsey Commissioner claims there’s been a lack of positive information about the town’s swing bridge since it was shut for maintenance.

Juan McGuinness said, during a question and answer session on Facebook, it can feel like Ramsey is ‘last’ to receive funding or is given a ‘second-class budget’.

The Victorian swing bridge has been closed for seven months – initially it was due to a hole in the road surface but other areas of ‘concern’ were found during inspections and the Department of Infrastructure has not given a timescale for its reopening.

It became a registered building in March last year which protects it against alteration or demolition.

Mr McGuinness believes the ‘end game’ is to make it a pedestrian only bridge: ‘It's been six months of no vehicle access and a real lack of any sort of positive information.

‘I don't want to be overly negative about this, but as I said earlier this week that I do worry that it's going to become pedestrianised permanently.

‘Obviously, maintaining that structure is a roadworthy bridge is expensive for the DoI I can understand why they would not want to spend it, but it's an important access point to hold on to for when we have issues with the stone bridge.

‘I'm not suggesting that it's going to collapse anytime soon, but it's going to need maintenance. It's got utilities running through it, and it's a road surface as much as anything else.

‘It should be getting fixed faster than six months, and it's up to us, not just Ramsey Town Commissioners, but the people at Ramsey to kind of keep that pressure up so that they know that it's not going to be just acceptable to leave it unusable.’

The Department of Infrastructure has been contacted for comment.