Rother Valley Railway

Hmmm.... sounds like someone around here knows what he's talking about - do you farm A1X? Locally to Robertsbridge?

However, from my own experience (farming in the Marches) some farmers can be more than a little bloody-minded and nothing will shift them.

Foxy.

 

Alternatively keep them well greased. New steel gates of conventional design were provided at Nothiam on the A28 Ashford - Rye road. Heavy duty grease nipples were provided. As a guard at that time I operated the gates up to 6 times per day. I ensured they were kept well greased. After having moved away, work related, I visited Nortiam and found the gates stiff to operate. The increasing stiffness had probably crept up on staff. I admit it was my fault that I did not ensure someone else looked to the greasing when I left

 

After dealing with farmers for 30 years of my working life I will go along with that but as in any walk of life a lot depends on your approach. When someone is asked to part with something the normal response is 'what's in it for me?' So the railway could try and come up with some benefit for the loss land, difficult in the case of a farming business but farmers tend to be involved in the community in some way so pointing out the economic benefits to the local area may swing it. Going in saying we are building a railway so we want your land certainly won't work.

 

There are five sections where the cause of the railway line has crops grown across the track bed where the farmer has reclaimed the track bed as fields so the farmers will be getting money payment on this land due to it been cropped and not just a trackway etc.

 

I was a farmer until 2008. We still own the land but rent it to another neighbour, so my knowledge of it all is probably getting a little rusty! I'm not the robertsbridge end of the line, but the Headcorn end!

Myles

 

The compensation under a CPO is a bit complicated but is based on the principle of equivalence, i e the farmer should be no worse of after the acquisition than he was before. What he actually gets will depend on whether he is an owner occupier or a tenant. In the latter case I think the freeholder is entitled to compensation for 'injurious affection' which means any loss of value in the remaining land as a result of the CPO. This principle applies to owner occupiers. There is compensation for disturbance while the development of the acquired takes place. For tenants it depends on the type of tenancy and is a bit more complicated and would probably depend on a land agent negotiating the best deal.

 

Then you're just what the railway needs, a railway enthusiast farmer to act as mediator!

 

An awful lot of money "disappears" in CPO cases which is why it is better to try bribery, I mean a particularly generous approach, first.

 

I know I was assuming all that had failed. It is a bit silly if the railway are going to win in the end to dig your heals in when you could be better off with a negotiated settlement but it happens. I'm not just getting at farmers, there are awkward b****ers in all walks of life

 

Good for you. My family farmed at Hurst Green and we used to get our cattle cake from Hodsons.....

X1 - Hodson's Mill by Foxhunter posted Feb 13, 2017 at 1:03 PM

Foxy

 

Thats why i said in my post, that the greater benefits have to be taken on board and ways found to see what can be done to work with the farming community to offer other possible options that could make up for their loss of income, such as exploring new markets where the railway can help advertising, if the farm has its own products, such as cheeses, or other products thats another opening , a farm shop on the platform etc, publicizing that farms produce , , no one wants bad neighbors, or ones that feel resentful, because they will cause nothing but trouble, the first step had to be to offer the farmer a fair price, then to work with him to discus what the railway can do to help him to look at whats possible, if he digs his feet in says no, wont even talk, then it has to be made clear in the locality that its him, not the railway thats being stubborn .

 

I would gladly offer my services, but sadly I don't think I would be of any use. I think this farming family (or certain elements within) have been dead against this way back in the early 1990s when the idea was first looked at again following the 1960s defeats. That would have been a mere 18years after the rails were lifted in 72, so there is some serious long term anti railway feeling there. I think that someone high up in the RVR is/was a farmer/from a farming background and this hasn't appeared to help much!!

Myles

 

It's interesting that the deputy Chairman of the RVR is Mike Hart. He was one of the driving forces behind the reconstruction of the Welsh Highland Line from Porthmadog to Caernavon which was an astonishing achievement and indeed he received an OBE in 2010 for his services. The seemingly endless, but ultimately successful, battles with hostile farmers,campsite owners,and indeed the Snowdonia National Park are fully described in Gordon Rushton's comprehensive history "Welsh Highland Renaissance".

I feel that if anyone can get the RVR built it is Mike Hart. I hope the RVR will have good news soon.

 

If you can deal with intransigent Welsh farmers and win then this should be no problem. The WHR did go to appeal and was finally approved by the Minister, the only sensible decision John Prescott ever made.

 

Staying out of politics, I believe @nick813 could name at least one other sensible decision John Prescott made...he's been a minor shareholder in the 813 Fund for many years!

 

Oh, I don't know; thumping the bloke who egged him was quite sensible!

 

Agreed - the man had a Mullet.
(Who was it who said the only honourable course of action available to a Gentleman upon meeting a man in a Mullet (with or without a mallet in Millett's) is to hit him?)

 

At a guess not Pat Sharp, Billy Ray Cyrus or Michael Bolton...
(Can you actually be in a mullet?)

 

Rother Valley Railway Trust application for planning permission for the remaining section of the line was approved this morning by the local planning authority. Press release attached.

 

Best news this year..