A FOUR-YEAR fight to make a railway footbridge in Oxford wheelchair and bike-accessible looks to have finally been won by campaigners.

Residents have been battling to get Network Rail to include ramps when it replaces the footbridge linking North and South Hinksey.

Network Rail originally said it could not afford to modify its plans for the new bridge, but in 2015 revealed they would look again after Vale of White Horse District Council, Oxford City Council and Oxfordshire County Council offered to contribute to the cost.

Now city council leader Bob Price has confirmed Network Rail have said the new designs will be accessible for all.

He said: "They told us earlier this year that the new plan would include access ramps which is a victory for those who have been campaigning about this issue for a long time."

Meanwhile, local MPs Layla Moran and Anneliese Dodds have vowed to put pressure on Network Rail to ensure residents, who daily struggle to get pushchairs and bicycles up the bridge's steep steps, will finally see progress.

Mrs Moran, who represents Oxford West and Abingdon, said: "It's so important to people and my personal experience has impacted how I think about this issue. When I was 20 I broke my leg and was in a wheelchair for three months.

"Until it happens to you, you don't realise how much those in wheelchairs are excluded."

Oxford East MP Anneliese Dodds added: "This really cuts the two communities on either side of the bridge off from each other and as an MP I will be making it clear that this is a priority for the community."

She said the problem was wider than just the Hinksey bridge and many parts of the city were 'out of limits' to wheelchair users.

South Hinksey resident Peter Rawcliffe, who has been campaigning for years to have the new bridge be wheelchair and bike friendly, said: "When we heard they were electrifying the line and refurbishing bridges along the route we seized the opportunity to try and get something done about the bridge.

"It's a really well used path and we have been fighting for a long time to have it accessible to all."

Network Rail is rebuilding the bridge and 28 others in Oxfordshire as part of its £2bn electrification of the Great Western Mainline from London.

The bridge is going to be replaced by Network Rail because it needs to be higher to allow for electrification of the line.

The government had planned to finish the electrification by 2019, but it has been delayed until the next 'control period', which runs to 2024.

A Network Rail spokesman said: “The bridge at South Hinksey is too low to allow electrified lines to be passed underneath.

"Therefore, as part of electrification between Didcot Parkway and Oxford stations the bridge will need to be either refurbished or replaced.

“When the bridge is replaced it will be fitted with ramps to make it more accessible for users, but as electrification between Didcot and Oxford has been deferred to take place during our next funding period, between 2019 and 2024, the construction of the bridge itself is currently not funded.

“Design work has progressed and we will be in a position to update on this when funding for projects in the next funding period are confirmed.”

Mr Price added he was hopeful the old bridge, which runs from near Lake Street in South Oxford across Hinksey Lake and the railway line to South Hinksey, would be maintained until the new one was built on land next to it.

However, with the electrification project delayed, work on the bridge will not begin until funding has been secured.

Oxford City Council originally refused to give permission for work on two bridges because the proposed designs did not have ramps.

Network Rail appealed against both decisions and won, but the council used a third bridge needing modification, Aristotle Lane, as a bargaining tool.

The council holds crucial crossing rights to that bridge, which Network Rail needs to carry out its scheme, and city council leader Bob Price said his authority would not surrender the rights unless Network Rail added ramps to the Hinksey bridges.