No meeting has been finalised, nor a decision made to transfer the Historic Kopu Bridge to the Thames-Coromandel District Council.

The Historic Kopu Bridge Society has been lobbying the TCDC to commit to retaining the Old Kopu Bridge, but the council says the decision is in the hands of the NZ Transport Agency.

The Old Kopu Bridge. Photo: File

Deputy Mayor Peter French says they are still in the same position they were in when council made resolutions about the Bridge at its October 2014 meeting.

'That is, we support the Historic Kopu Bridge Society in principle subject to them meeting conditions,” says Peter, 'and that the retention of the Bridge is achieved with no risk or future cost to our ratepayers.”

The three resolutions from the October meeting are: a long-term transferrable resource consent for future demolition is successfully achieved by the NZTA, and that there's certainty of operation, maintenance and financial self-sustainability by an external management entity.

The third and final resolution called for certainty on the adequacy of future demolition funding received from NZTA.

'We understand the Historic Kopu Bridge Society is still trying to meet the conditions in our resolution by securing external funding streams and they're trying very hard,” says Peter. 'We also acknowledge all the work the Society has been doing to make this happen, as a group of volunteers, this is a testament to their passion for our local heritage.

'However, the timeframe for removals is in NZTA hands and it's over to the Historic Bridge Society to satisfy NZTA, iwi and then finally our Council of a definite proposal for retaining the Bridge.”

Council understands the NZTA is in the process of preparing resource consent applications to demolish the historic bridge.

While there are no timeframes, it is expected that consents would be lodged before the end of 2015.

'If in the event NZTA get consent to demolish and the Society can't satisfy our conditions then the Bridge should be removed.”