AN historic footbridge in one of the region’s leading resorts is to be renovated at a cost of £608,000.

The Spa Bridge in Scarborough has been a tourist attraction since it was first opened to the public in 1827 - buy is now in need of extensive renovation of the decking and walkway supports.

The work will begin next Monday and the bridge will be closed until next Easter. The £608,000 operation will be carried out for North Yorkshire County Council by Wilf Noble Civil Engineering Ltd, of Whitby.

The county’s executive member for highways. John Fort, said: "This marvellous bridge has served the people of Scarborough, and hundreds of thousands of visitors, extremely well over the years.

"However it is in need of a considerable amount of work if it is to retain its place as a much-loved feature of the Scarborough townscape.

"This major restoration will ensure that the Spa Bridge is as safe, elegant and popular in the twenty first century as it was in the nineteenth and twentieth."

*Originally called the Cliff Bridge, Spa Bridge was opened on July 19, 1827, to provide a link for pedestrians between the Spa and the St Nicholas Cliff area. It is 414ft long and 13.5ft wide, and crosses the valley at a height of approximately 75ft.

To mark its opening in 1827, a horse-drawn mail coach was driven at full speed across the bridge, watched by hundreds of sightseers.