THE director of the company which owns a slowly-collapsing railway viaduct said there is no solution in sight for the structure and it may have to be destroyed.

The Argus earlier reported farmer Graham Long's fears that someone could get hurt by the Troy Viaduct, which hasn't seen a train since 1959 but is slowly-collapsing onto his land.

Film maker Stephen Weeks, director of not-for-profit company Monumental Trust and former Penhow Castle owner, said a plan to generate cash to maintain Monmouth's Troy Viaduct failed to get planning permission in the 1990s.

He said: "The problem is there is no actual use for the site which could possibly generate any income to support future maintenance. The viaduct is not listed and could be demolished. If anyone wants the stone in exchange for felling it, that might have to be an option."

He added that legal issues surrounding the company have meant that, currently, the structure cannot be sold.

In 1989, British Rail planned to demolish Troy Viaduct, Mr Weeks said, but Monumental Trust took on the structure on the basis that £87,000 earmarked by British Rail for demolition would be used towards a £100,000 repair programme.

In the early 1990s the repairs were made, with the shortfall made up by the company, and a project to place a reproduction steam engine with original passenger carriages on the viaduct and use it as self-catering holiday accommodation was drawn up, but it failed to get planning permission.

Since then the company has been negotiating with cycle-charity Sustrans for a cycle-way passing near the viaduct. The company has rescued four other viaducts now in use as cycle paths, said Mr Weeks, director of Ghost Story, who moved to Prague in 2003 and is involved in the regeneration of castles in the Czech Republic.