There are hopes that a Trent Bridge ‘walk of fame’ featuring the names of legends like Brian Clough and Torvill and Dean would create “a gateway to sporting excellence”.

City councillor and Nottingham Forest fan, Steve Battlemuch, has renewed his calls to turn Trent Bridge into a tourism attraction.

He says the bridge, which carries 50,000 vehicles every day and thousands of cricket and football sports fans on matchdays, is in need of some “love and attention”.

This is more so the case now that the Reds are in the Premier League, and are due to play their biggest game in Europe in three decades on Thursday (March 12), as they face Danish club FC Midtjylland in the first leg of their Europa League last-16 tie at the City Ground.

Mr Battlemuch has now put forward his hopes to get a walk of fame installed on the bridge, suggesting plaques featuring the names of sporting heroes could become a future tourist trap.

“The current pavements over the bridge are quite dangerous,” he told the Local Democracy Reporting Service, speaking in an interview on the banks of the River Trent.

“There are a lot of broken slabs. I think they need replacing anyway. If you were going to do them, why couldn’t you make it part of a tourist attraction, where every third or fourth slab had a plaque built in that was a tribute to sporting icons of Nottingham.

“Cricketers, ice hockey, football. You could have famous ones from previous years; Brian Clough, John McGovern, Stuart Broad, Torvill and Dean. I think we have got to think this whole area is a gateway to sporting excellence.

“It is about using some imagination to say this is our sporting quarter of the city, and a walk of fame that included those famous names would attract a lot of visitors, and a lot of businesses in the area would benefit.”

Hopes for the walk of fame have been welcomed by businesses and those working in West Bridgford.

Mark James, the owner of the Boot Room, which sits next to the City Ground, said the walk of fame was a great idea and that it would “do no harm” for businesses in the area.

“Any kind of tourism attraction on the iconic Trent Bridge would be a good idea,” he said.

“It is about time we did something, we have to remember the legends, the likes of Cloughie and Broady.”

Dominic Burke, who works at Fitshop in West Bridgford, added: “I think it’d be a good thing to make it into an attraction.

“There are lots of fans and it would bring people to Nottingham.”

In 2017, steel and concrete safety barriers were put up either side of Trent Bridge to protect pedestrians at the request of Government advice in the wake of terror attacks in London, including an incident involving a car on Westminster Bridge the same year.

Mr Battlemuch wants these “eyesore” barriers replaced with bollards.

“There is a short-term and long-term solution,” he added. “One is to make the concrete blocks look better than they do by painting them or by covering them. That could be used to advertise the football club or the cricket club, but from a safety point of view the blocks, certainly on match days, don’t protect anyone because the crowds are so big people walk on the roads anyway.

“If somebody was going to ram into the crowds it is harder to get back on the pavement because you’ve got a big concrete block in your way. It is easier to get back in and out of bollards. The argument they are needed as a block for safety doesn’t really stack up. I think we could have a proper look at what this whole Trent Bridge area looks like.

“I’ve been pushing this now for over a year. I knew we were getting European football and I wanted the gateway to the city to look nicer than it does.”

He said there was so far a commitment in principle to get the barriers painted or covered, as well as a discussion with East Midlands Mayor, Claire Ward, about using tourism funds to improve the area.

However both Nottingham City Council and the East Midlands Combined County Authority declined to comment.

Last year city councillor Linda Woodings, the authority’s portfolio holder for transport, said options were being explored, but that there were financial and practical hurdles to overcome first.

Trent Bridge was built in 1871 at a cost of £36,000 and has only undergone one major change since it was widened in 1926.

The Grade-II listed landmark is today used by about 50,000 vehicles travelling into and out of the city every day, as well as huge numbers of football and cricket fans during regular sporting events at Nottingham Forest’s City Ground and Nottinghamshire’s Trent Bridge Cricket Ground.

It celebrated its 150th anniversary in 2021, following extensive maintenance the year before, when all steel and cast-iron parts of the bridge were repainted.

Damaged stonework was also repaired and gold leafing was reapplied to large sections of the bridge design.

It is maintained by the Bridge Estate charity, for which Nottingham City Council is the sole trustee.

BY Joe Locker