Lynton and Barnstaple - Operations and Development

Hopefully there will not be any judicial review of the planning decision as the Gobb family only had 6 weeks, (time scale set 07/13) from the planning meeting (06/03/18) where the decision was made to get the paperwork into the courts for this to happen (17/04/18) and now it is nearly 7 weeks after this date, and if they had got the paperwork in something would have come out over this by now as the Gobb solicitors/barristers would have informed the railway and planners as soon as by now and if the court system is awake they could have sent out the paperwork by now.

 

We don't know what's happening in the background, and the norms for deadlines have been a little elastic in the case of these applications, but perhaps this is a case of "No news is good news"?
As I understand it, a judicial review could only look at the process used to arrive at a planning decision, rather than the decision itself. Possibly one of the reasons why ENPA took their time to get it right.
Of course, the next legal hurdle is likely to be the TWAO.

 

For a Judicial Review to succeed, it has to meet a very strict test for unreasonableness (so-called Wednesbury Unreasonableness) or bias. Wednesbury unreasonablenesss is stricter because is not that the decision is unreasonable, but that "it is so unreasonable that no reasonable person acting reasonably could have made it". This is legally a very high bar, and it is hard for me to see as an outsider that the ENPA decision comes anywhere near it, especially after they imposed Grampian Conditions on the consent.

 

The 6 weeks deadline is set in stone from July 2013, and the judge has no powers to extend this deadline, this was done to bring it in line with all other cases which this type of thing applies to. Also the start of the 6 weeks was set by a court case to start from the date the planning was passed and not when the planning certificate was sent out as well. So there isn't any movement for this date of 17th April 2018 to get the paperwork into the court at all.

 

Just spotted this video on YouTube - was quite surprised to see a fairly extensive narrow gauge setup separate to the main L&B operation but on the route of the old line... I remember seeing video of a 7 1/4 track laid on the trackbed, but this looks something altogether more substantial... Can anybody fill me in on what it all is? Ta




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the comments make interesting reading...

Ps. Vid link not working for me, had to look up manually - might be just my phone though :-(

 

You’re not wrong - only just seen them, they weren’t loading before... Didn’t realise the video was made without permission, can understand if the owner wants to keep things private...


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Yea, the owner never was never asked permission before filming or even walking the track took place.

The owner does support the Lynton and Barnstaple railway and there is currently a good relationship going

Cant remember what month but a clearing party were sent to help clear trees etc.

 

Given the circumstances, would it perhaps be best to take the link down? Risking getting any L&B neighbour's back up unneccessarily doesn't seem productive.

 

As far as I remember this section of track bed was always owned by a supporter of the railway although I notice it is now indicated as being in the ownership of the L&B on the website
I cant remember this being announced officially though. Can anyone confirm?
I believe that it was cleared during last years working weekend.



https://www.google.com/maps/d/viewe...mbed&ie=UTF8&mid=1ait_38mDALZOXlxQGr3tIdXDUSQ

http://www.lynton-rail.co.uk/story/march-2017-spring-working-weekend-day-1
http://www.lynton-rail.co.uk/story/march-2017-spring-working-weekend-day-2
http://www.lynton-rail.co.uk/story/march-2017-spring-working-weekend-day-3

 

The owner David did ask for the youtube clip to be removed. I presume he is still the owner but has promised the trackbed to the L and B?
I notice on the google map some non owned track sections marking have been removed and owners privacy should be repected to stop unathorised walks.

Good to see trackside fences at Blackmoor being repaired and hopefully offical track walks will be organised the public can book.

There is a BBC documentary from 1987 where David gave permission for his private railway to be filmed.

Sad to see the photo earlier in the thread of carriage number 1 before it was burned. Good 2 and 15 were saved. Hopefully better security will protect what's left.
Hopefully no2 in the documentary can also be restored and returned to Blackmoor?
Getting Woody Bay restored was a long and worthy task. The return of 15 and Lyd in 2010 seemed to kickstart the interest in the L and B heratige rolling stock. Hopefully the next gala with a Lyd and Lyn double header will help interest in extending the line to Blackmoor. The better car park will encourage more rail, and then minibus and cliff railway rides into Lynton, and improve railway revenue.

 

Coach 2 is now at the National Railway Museum, and has been conserved in "as-found" condition. And that is exactly how she should stay! She is a perfect time capsule; apart from some paint on the exterior she is essentially unchanged since the last day she ran on the L&B. "Restoration" would destroy that. Better to leave her as she is, and build a replica for use on the new L&B.

 

The key point is how much of the original Coach 2 could be incorporated into an operational vehicle: everything anyone has said suggests that quite a lot would need to be replaced. Whilst we can argue about the exact description of the wonderful work carried out by the Eastern Group, the amount of original material is small, and could not be usefully exhibited in an 'as found' state, which means to me that it is much better used in a reconstructed vehicle. By contrast, No 2 can be exhibited like this, and it tells a number of useful stories (the L&B itself, attempts to use narrow guage as a proper public transport soluion rather than as an add-on to a mineral railway, use of grounded bodies at farms across the country, the desire to reconstruct the L&B, the reconstruction itself - there are doubtless others). And finally, most importantly, it is for the NRM to decide what to do with it, as it's their exhibit!

 

i could'nt agree more,also i think she she should stay at the nrm where hopefully she can promote the L&BR to a much wider audience

 

Some interesting news from Group East, showing the novel method of construction they have adopted for carriage no.5:

http://www.lynton-rail.co.uk/trust/groups/pages/carriage-workshop-update

 

At first sight that looked like the modular coach panels PECO do in 7mm scale!

Steve B

 

It is, they just scaled the kit up to 304.8mm to the foot.

 

I'd be very intrested to know from the Essex team what benefits they expect to get over their previous approach.

 

More from Group East, No.5 in more detail, including some truly jaw-dropping paint finishes:

http://www.lynton-rail.co.uk/trust/groups/pages/latest-fridaywood-farm-september-2018

 

This is seriously impressive stuff - well done!

Steve B