Nearly five months on from its collapse, the Bishopsford Road Bridge remains closed to traffic.

In April work began on strengthening the bridge over the River Wandle, which borders Sutton and Merton.

But on June 10 the river flooded causing a series of unfortunate events.

Four days later the  the northern arch of the bridged partially collapsed, breaking gas, water, electricity and broadband mains.

The southern arch was unaffected but the central arch also suffered minor damage.

The gas leak meant that homes were evacuated with residents only allowed to return the next day.

The bridge is now open to pedestrians and cyclists and Merton Council is carrying out weekly monitoring of the paths.

It is still not known how much the repair of the bridge will cost or when it will be reopened.

A meeting of Merton’s sustainable communities overview and scrutiny commission heard that the council is working with contractor FM Conway to iron out these details.

But Councillor David Dean said residents are concerned with how long the repairs are taking.

He said: “Residents  have been extremely patient, they recognise that this was a natural disaster but I am not convinced that they feel the information they got back from the council is regular and open.

“I don’t think they’re convinced about the time it is taking. I understand that FM Conway look after the bridges. If they are experts on bridges why didn’t they think about what the consequences could be considering there is a huge amount of water to the right,  a lot of water to the left and we have a particular climate in this country.

“I don’t think the right things are being done and I really think there needs to be a sense of urgency. “