bridge-utils doesn't work in Utopic

[penalvch]

Followed the Bridging guide verbatim at https://help.ubuntu.com/stable/serverguide/network-configuration.html did not create a working bridged network:
sudo apt-get -y install bridge-utils
sudo nano /etc/network/interfaces
#START
auto lo
iface lo inet loopback

auto br0
iface br0 inet static
        address 192.168.1.12
        network 192.168.1.0
        netmask 255.255.255.0
        broadcast 192.168.1.255
        gateway 192.168.1.1
        bridge_ports eth0 wlan0
        bridge_fd 9
        bridge_hello 2
        bridge_maxage 12
        bridge_stp off
#END

sudo ifup br0

The 192.168.1.12 IP address was not consumed by another device at the time of attempting this. This is preventing me from instituting a wired > wireless USB dongle > WAP environment.

ProblemType: Bug
DistroRelease: Ubuntu 14.10
Package: bridge-utils 1.5-7ubuntu1
ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 3.16.0-33.44-generic 3.16.7-ckt7
Uname: Linux 3.16.0-33-generic x86_64
ApportVersion: 2.14.7-0ubuntu8.2
Architecture: amd64
CurrentDesktop: Unity
Date: Sat Apr 4 16:42:19 2015
Dependencies:
 gcc-4.9-base 4.9.1-16ubuntu6
 libc6 2.19-10ubuntu2.3
 libgcc1 1:4.9.1-16ubuntu6
 multiarch-support 2.19-10ubuntu2.3
InstallationDate: Installed on 2015-04-03 (1 days ago)
InstallationMedia: Ubuntu 14.10 "Utopic Unicorn" - Release amd64 (20141022.1)
SourcePackage: bridge-utils
UpgradeStatus: No upgrade log present (probably fresh install)