SEVERE concerns about its effects on the environment surround plans to site the longest pedestrian suspension bridge in the world near Barnard Castle.

Progress of the initial scheme has been well documented in the D&S Times, and the scheme initially attracted nothing but good publicity and praise for the men behind it, Bill Oldfield and Chris Dauber of Teesdale Marketing.

The two gave an update on the project, which could attract 165,000 visitors a year, to Teesdale District Council last week, after which members expressed their support in principle, without prejudice to any future planning application.

The authority's director of administration, Mike Dennis, said members had asked themselves whether they would be putting themselves in a compromising position, but had been assured that they were not looking at a planning application, they were merely looking at a proposed tourist development.

However, at a meeting of the town council on Monday, members took a different line, with some expressing "severe concerns" regarding the environmental impact of what they termed the revised scheme, now estimated at costing £4.5m and including two car parks, a coach park, visitor centre, shop and caf.

Clerk, Geoff Bosworth, was instructed to write to all parties, expressing town councillors' reservations about the additions, which, as the D&S Times revealed two weeks ago, also include an eco-friendly woodland adventure park based on the Les Forets d'Aventure in France.

"Members decided that they needed to be persuaded that any economic benefits will outweigh any such disadvantages," he said.

Teesdale Council's endorsement in principle came as a surprise to Ian Moorhouse, chairman of the recently formed local branch of the Campaign to Protect Rural England, who left the district council meeting after the presentation, unaware that a vote had been taken.

He is to invite Messrs Dauber and Oldfield to address a meeting of the CPRE. "I am keeping an open mind and looking at various aspects of the scheme," he said. "I am hoping that Mr Dauber and his team can allay any concerns that might be raised at that meeting."

Mr Oldfield called the project a development of ideas rather than a revised scheme.

"The experts have told us that the bridge needs something else to make sure it's a big enough attraction to be self-sustaining," he said. "I am very disappointed that very few councillors have approached Teesdale Marketing or the consultants about their concerns rather than just keep raising them in council meetings."

He stressed that a full, independent environmental impact study was to be carried out