IN the heart of Faversham is a rusting swing bridge that carries traffic across Faversham creek but prevents water-borne access to a muddy tidal basin. Set between the Shepherd Neame brewery and an engineering works and bordered by trees it has lain empty and unused for decades.

This could change if an insurgent campaign, sparked off by retired social worker Marion Barton and former trade union leader Rosie Eagleson, is able to win its demands.

Four years ago the town was galvanised by a fundraising campaign following a pledge from council leaders that if the town’s citizens could raise £125,000 match funding and more would be available to replace the bridge.

The vision was that the bridge, which the council proposed to replace by a fixed crossing, would instead become a functioning swing bridge. The basin could be dredged and adjacent land developed for housing, amenity and industry.

The idea was to build upon Faversham boat repair sector, revive crafts associated with the Thames sailing barges that make the creek their winter base and give young people skilled work and training.

Indian restaurants laid on special meals, pub quiz nights and sponsored events filled evenings and the prospect of reviving the creek gripped the town’s imagination.

The money was raised and lodged with Kent County Council.

Silence ensued. The mood was subdued. Resignation set in.

At an International Women’s Day event in the old creekside gas works purifier building, the idea emerged of a new campaign.

First step was a delegation to lobby the Kent County Council meeting and its Tory leader Paul Carter.

Thus began a sustained campaign to press local authority leaders to meet their commitments.

Where’s our bridge? became the rallying cry and the campaign’s massive banner began its guerilla appearances on the town’s edifices. Posters and leaflets flooded shops, schools and workplaces. Petitions were gathered at the town’s medieval marketplace.

The campaign brought reactionary ideas to the surface. One obdurate business man suggested a toll bridge at the main point of access to a big working-class housing estate. Others thought the development should be funded by luxury housing. But the main response was enthusiastic.

Running through the campaign is a clear understanding that government cuts to local authority funds is the central problem. Last year Kent needed to shave £75 million off its spending and the noose is tightening. This was against a background of cuts totalling £221 million since 2010 while demand for council services is rising, potentially costing an additional £387 million or more.

And Cllr Carter himself warned that the government must end its austerity regime.

The campaign faced several problems. It challenged a town council with limited financial powers made worse by spectacular incompetence and a crashing lack of imagination. A Tory MP who combines a backstory in privatising health services and a willingness to appear at every event whilst saying nothing critical of budget cuts has proved an inadequate channel for local concerns. The district council is dominated by a Tory majority as is Kent County Council.

Campaigners understand that there is no advantage gained by sucking up to the local authority leaders. Taken at face value the Kent County Council would like for a solution to appear. Even someone charitably disposed to Cllr Carter would find him limited in what he can do given the bind the government has put him in.

A measure of his problem is that budget cuts have already led to the dissolution of the council’s engineering department and a shift to private contracting.

The campaign crowned a year of campaigning with a packed, 500-strong meeting in the parish church in which the Kent County Council leader reported that his legal advice suggested that the duty to maintain the navigation lays with the private entity, Peel Ports, and that he was hopeful of an early settlement.

The campaign won a commitment for further transparency and a deadline in February was set to monitor progress. The campaigners sense success and remain confident that the money will be found but are resolute that there is no hiding place for politicians who fail to meet their promises.

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