Drive to name road bridge locally

The bridge is currently known as the Upper Forth Crossing

Clackmannanshire Council is considering a move to claim the new Kincardine road bridge by naming it after its county.

Councillors have already agreed that the crossing, should be called the "Clackmannanshire Bridge".

Council officials have now urged the authority to act quickly before the bridge, currently known as the Upper Forth Crossing, is formally named.

But it was also warned that talks with Fife and Falkirk councils over a name required a "delicate touch".

The new £120m crossing aims to improve transport links between Forth Valley and Central Scotland when it opens in 2008.

If we do not help decide a name quickly then someone will do it for us Mags Cochrane Clackmannanshire Council

Clackmannanshire's marketing chief Mags Cochrane stated that naming the bridge after the small but rapidly growing county would bring the area national recognition.

"Clackmannanshire now has that fastest rate of housing growth in Scotland and the second highest rate of population growth - all encouraging signs of the area's rebirth," she stated in a council report.

But the report said that a delay in naming the bridge could result in it suffering the same "fate" as Glasgow's Clyde Arc bridge, dubbed the "squinty bridge" because of its diagonal design.

"If we do not help decide a name quickly then someone will do it for us," the report added.

It has also been suggested that an alternative list of Clackmannanshire-orientated names is drawn up for consideration and that the council lobbies ministers to back the move.