Bridge tragedy

I am beyond saddened to hear of another loss of life at the Bromsgrove Highway bridge. Back in 2012 we were involved in trying to campaign for action to be taken there and sadly weren't successful. It was this which led us on to form MHAG the following year. I was asked as chair to provide a comment to the Redditch Standard which appears in today's paper (available online here). This is the comment in full:

Harriet Ernstsons-Evans, chair of the Redditch Mental Health Action Group, said: "It is tragic another incident has happened which could so easily have been avoided had the county council listened years ago when they were warned of the issues at that location.

"Taking action at the bridge is only part of the solution - but it is an important part. National best practice states locations should be made safer once there have been a number of incidents there and there are examples across the country where action such as caging has reduced the number of lives lost.

"Alongside this we also need to keep focusing on the provision of mental health services and destigmatising mental health, allowing people to come forward and access help when they need it in a timely and appropriate manner.

"But while this is happening, the county council need to urgently reverse their decision not to take action at the bridge. How many lives need to be lost before they think it's important enough to consider? There is a financial cost to caging the bridge but there is a very real human cost in terms of the lives lost and the impact on loved ones and witnesses."