BOSSES are to be asked to make a railway bridge in Knutsford look decent.

Strategic Rail, which replaced Railtrack, will be told the bridge over King Street needs improving.

"It gives such a bad impression of the rail infrastructure," said Clr Wilson Hamman, a member of the Mid Cheshire Community Rail Partnership.

"It is rusty and it has not been painted for years."

The partnership met yesterday to discuss the state of Knutsford's railway and how to encourage more people to travel by train.

They agreed the King Street bridge, which has previously carried a Welcome to Knutsford sign at Christmas, needed work.

Pigeons

Pigeons were the problem last year when they were blamed for pooing on visitors and shoppers.

They roosted under the bridge and left the pavements below caked in their mess.

Officers eventually put up netting to stop the birds sitting on the bridge.

Clr Hamman, who regularly travels by train, said it was an important landmark in Knutsford.

"When it is clean it is quite a handsome structure," he said. "It is like the Barbican coming into town."

The partnership have also agreed to ask for safety guard rails to be built after Clr Hamman saw teenagers sprinting across the track.

If approved, the rails would go along the platform to stop people crossing.

"The freight trains belt through there at a fair old lick," he said. "If you slipped crossing the track then you'd be a goner."

Classic answer to vandalism at Knutsford Railway Station. Page 5