A combination of high wind speeds and the Waverley left Glasgow’s newest bridge being shut to pedestrians all day on Sunday.

The world’s oldest ocean-going paddle steamer was sailing from its berth at the Science Centre on Sunday morning.

To allow it to sail downstream, the Govan to Partick Bridge closed to pedestrians and cyclists at 6am and swung open.

(Image: newsquest)

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Due to the Waverley returning in the evening and forecasted high winds it was decided to leave the bridge in the open position and keep it closed for the rest of the day.

People at either side of the bridge hoping to cross were met with padlocked gates on the approach.

(Image: newsquest)

The council explained the reason and the operational limits of the new bridge.

It said there is a wind speed at which it is not required to operate the bridge’s open and closing function.

The council said had it returned the bridge to its fixed position to allow people to cross, then the Waverley could have been stranded downstream and unable to berth and let passengers disembark.

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The limit for operating the bridge is wind speeds of more than 24mph and gusts of above 35mph.

As the Waverley doesn’t sail over the winter it is not anticipated the situation will arise very often.

The new £29.5m bridge opened to the public last month.

A Glasgow City Council spokesman said: “The bridge remained open to ensure that the Waverley would be able to return to its berth. 

“Had we closed the bridge after the ship had departed, we may not have been able to open it again to allow the Waverley to return as the forecast wind speeds (particularly gust speeds) were above the operational limits of the bridge. 

“This would have meant that the Waverley would be stuck downstream.  Had the Waverley not been sailing at the weekend we would have been able to leave the bridge in its fixed position, i.e. open to pedestrians and cyclists.

“This is unlikely to happen very often in the future as the Waverley does not typically sail during the storm season – it has a few sailings over the next few days, with the next sailings in April/May 2025. 

“Their last sailing of the year which is always scheduled for mid-October will always be high-risk – had the wind been just a little stronger then the Waverley would have had to cancel their sailing and the bridge would have been unaffected.”