A PLAN to build what could be the world’s longest rope bridge may be resurrected after groups behind the scheme started discussions about a scaled-down project.

The idea to build a £4.5m, 550ft-long suspended rope bridge over the River Tees, near Barnard Castle, emerged in 2003.

However, many local people and councillors objected to the wider elements of the scheme, which would have included an access road and facilities on either side of the former viaduct.

Teesdale Marketing said the bridge could be built at a fraction of the £4.5m cost and would be just as successful without the controversial additions.

Engineering consultancy company Waterman Aspen is carrying out a feasibility study into the plan on behalf of Durham County Council.

Teesdale Marketing chairman Bill Oldfield said: “The pure idea of the bridge has always been what we were interested in, and it is what we investigated in the first place.

“We could still maintain the important elements of the bridge, restoring a view which has not been seen since the trains stopped crossing the bridge in the Sixties and linking up with several walking routes, but without other elements.

“It would be unlike anything else in County Durham and could, maybe, be the longest of its type in the world.” Next week, Mr Oldfield and other members of Teesdale Marketing will visit the Rhone region of France, where there is a similar bridge.

Although no costs have been drawn up, Mr Oldfield said a similar bridge in Switzerland cost £250,000.

John Yarker, from Barnard Castle Town Council, said: “When the first plan was announced, there was a lot of support.

“It was when they started to talk about shops and cafes and barging a road through the golf course that people began to question it.

“No one is going to argue with the idea of attracting more tourists to the area, but it has to be in the right way.”

Councillor Neil Foster, Durham County Council’s cabinet member for regeneration and economic development, said: “It is important to stress straight away that this study will answer many of the questions surrounding the suitability of, and appetite for, what is an entirely new proposal.

“We are talking about an extremely early stage concept, for a bridge and heritage woodland walk only, which bears no resemblance to how proposals looked about seven years ago.”