THE man who led the creation of Worcester's Carrington Bridge has admitted for the first time the structure is now "over-loaded" - but says the city was lucky it was built at all.

On another day of developments in the A4440 saga Vivian Jones, who yesterday labelled the Ketch and Whittington islands flawed, has revealed his thinking over the bottlenecked bridge.

Mr Jones, now 85 and of Battenhall, was in charge of infrastructure across Worcestershire and Herefordshire from 1976 to 1991 - with Carrington Bridge built in 1984.

The expert, who spent 40 years working around the country overseeing roads and bridges before getting an OBE from the Queen, admitted: "There has been quite a hoo-ha over the bridge over the years.

"But what people don't realise is just how difficult it was to get the money for it, at the time it was competing with the whole of Herefordshire and Worcestershire for the money to get it built.

"At the time it satisfied all the traffic projections - but it's obvious that it is over-loaded now.

"My view is that the only way it can be solved is to build a second bridge, to operate them unilaterally."

The comments will re-open the debate over the congested bridge, which the county council is currently unable to dual because of the estimated £70 million costs, although huge lobbying efforts are going on behind the scenes with central Government.

Many critics say the decision in 1984 to make it single tracked, at a cost of around £2 million, was short-sighted.

The county council is now sinking £41 million into dualling the rest of the Southern Link Road and has come under fresh criticism today after campaigners created a new social media video of the £8 million enlarged Ketch island featuring running commentary.

The video, which was uploaded to YouTube last night, shows a driver pulling up at the island from Carrington Bridge saying "should I stay or should I go?" before a car cuts them up wildly.

The vehicle them carries on over the island, with the commentary saying "the joke is on us" before carrying on down the link road as the running critique carries on for just over four minutes.

It has been put together by Russell Ventura, the husband of campaigner Lisa Ventura, who now runs the Worcester Transport Forum.

Yesterday we revealed how Mr Jones, who was the official bridgemaster for both counties during his career, described the Ketch island design as "sub-standard" and Whittington island "potentially dangerous".

A spokesman for the county council has today reiterated that the safety audit was underway, and said the authority is "awaiting the report before commenting further".

The safety probe was brought forward after 81,000 people saw a Facebook video and 1,268 people signed a petition calling for changes.

The audit is being done independently.

Since last Friday two lanes around the Ketch, including the merger section of one exit for Carrington Bridge, have been coned off.

To see what we've been saying about the Southern Link Road earlier this week see here.

* More on this story will follow.