Lynton and Barnstaple - Operations and Development

I am not sure if it was a written agreement that EA/YVT would only undertake the purchase of the trackbed south of Wistlandpound. But I consider that this may be the wrong place to have drawn the line.

I know that we now have Blackmoor PLC, but I can't help but think we should have changed that line to the A39 bridge at Blackmoor so the Trust deals with ENPA while EA deals with NDC.

Blackmoor could then become the joint meeting point between the two parts of the Railway, which, in turn could generate some money to help in a small way to rebuild part of the railway.

 

From the Facebook page, Giles Perkins has said that the slides and a video of the meeting will be posted shortly. A good step!

If there's going to be an 'Appeal Yes/No' question, then in order to make an informed decision, I want to see:

- the grounds for appeal,
- the costs of the appeal
- an assessment of the likelihood of success, and
- a business case for the CFL project.

We've been here before with the successive red line and s73 fiascos which were both more than £100k and which delivered nothing other than opprobrium.

As it stands at the moment, I see no sensible grounds for appeal, and the business case was never been made clear - it seeemed to be 'longer railway good' which is not the basis for spending rather more than £1m that the Trust doesn't appear to have.

Time, as I said upthread, for everyone to stop, to get a neutrally chaired meeting of all of the L&B family, and to jointly produce the full array of options. The last thing we need is an ill-informed knee-jerk appeal.

 

I am not sure if this is something that comes under RM3 or not, but I found this YouTube which might help with safety clearance at a point on a railway

 

I don’t think this is a fair or appropriate question for Trustees to put to the membership. We are unable to have the kind of background information required to judge the merits or otherwise, and I would not expect the trustees to publish all they know for good reason. This feels like a shift of responsibility that I don’t find comfortable.

 

Latest news regarding the previous planning permission for the Blackmoor to Wistlandpound,

See >>> https://www.lynton-rail.co.uk/news/view/blackmoor-gate-planning

 

Giles did say they will be "working up" the options so far identified, before presenting to the members, and that we have 6 months (from the planning decision) to appeal. Personally, I'm minded to vote "No" - there don't appear to be any conclusive grounds for an appeal, and unless we can fundamentally change our plan, the same reasons for refusal will apply. (Read the disclaimer in my signature)

 

I think your approach is right, @Old Kent Biker . The real issue is that an appeal has to be based on substantive errors in the Planners' report or unsupportable decisions by the Committee.

Neither apply.

CFL as proposed was a new, never before existing, station, on a new, never before existing, embankment, with (at best) contested road access - who actually owns Cricket Field Lane (the road) is not clear*, and so failed on visual impact and on heritage aspects, especially given the lack of obvious offsetting public benefit.

A successful appeal against that backdrop seems far-fetched, to say the least.

With extensions from Woody Bay fanciful at this point - there's no land owned from WB to Caffyns (the Dean Steep section is beyond that, and on the other side of the A39), and there's no point in applying to go to Parracombe which is very likely to be rejected. If I lived in Parracombe (or especially Churchtown), I'd be concerned about more traffic on a very narrow lane, too. So Parracombe will reopen, but only as a through Halt in the form it was when the rest of the line opens between BG and KL.

*I thought it was the Church of England, but some local landowners think it is theirs - it certainly doesn't belong to any bit of the L&B family