Haringey rejects saftey net for notorious ‘suicide bridge’

Haringey Council has rejected calls from campaigners for a safety net to be installed to prevent suicides at Hornsey Lane Bridge – despite a spate of deaths there last year.

The bridge in Highgate is known locally as ‘Suicide Bridge’ due to the high number of people who have killed themselves there.

Demands for new safety measures came after three men jumped to their deaths from the bridge in quick succession during October last year.

Residents living nearby asked the council to look at the possibility of putting a net between the bridge and the busy road underneath to break jumpers’ falls.

But adult and community services boss Lisa Redfern said the council had rejected the net option at a meeting with police and mental health chiefs, so Haringey would be taking “no further action” in relation to the bridge.

In an email to campaigner Sarah Cope, Ms Redfern wrote: “It was the multi-agency view that a person who is determined to take their own life could simply crawl to the edge thereby avoiding the net altogether. It should be noted that there are no bridges in the UK using netting.”

But Ms Cope branded Ms Redfern’s claims regarding the net as “false”. She said: “The person who invented the net is the person who knows how it works and they were not invited to the meeting.

“They decided without them that the net wouldn’t work. They basically didn’t want to spend the money.”