Rother Valley Railway

I'm not sure that this kind of reporting actually helps anyone, as adverse comments tend to get screen shopped and end up being used to undermine the case of the RVR.
The application for planning is a separate matter, nothing to do with this public hearing, and as such is best left well alone.

 

From the anti-RVR Facebook page:



The Great Robertsbridge Train Robbery
8 hrs ·
How is this allowed to happen?!







Emma Ainslie
12 hrs
and fledgling birds just shows quite how arrogant and ignorant they are. They are currently destroying precious habitat on the old track bed east of Moat Farm, Salehurst, TN32. There are nesting nightingales (recorded) and other red listed birds throughout this valley not to mention other rare flora and fauna. Why the need to destroy all of this in a ‘land locked’ stretch of unusable derelict trackbed (uncrossable Junction Road to the east and NOT FOR SALE Moat Farm to the West!). It seems very presumptive and also from where we are sitting, another intimidation tactic!
RVR are obviously very confident for whatever reason, that one day they’ll be allowed to get their TWAO (when and if we ever get to the public enquiry that THEY, not us, we never asked for any of this, have managed to get postponed which tortures us all further, for another year due to their complete incompetence to provide the correct information to the Inspector within the time allowed) and then subsequently be allowed to implement their long wished for COMPULSORY PURCHASE ORDER otherwise why are they wasting their ‘donors’ money by destroying this precious habitat now as there’s no where for that track to go!!!!! It’s all unnecessary!
I am utterly devastated.
Surely with everything we are talking about in regard to saving our natural world at this pivotal point in human & global survival it’s conservation not destruction we should be demanding!!!! If allowed to continue it won’t ever regenerate!!!!! It’s a disgrace!!! YOU Rother Valley Railway, Kent and East Sussex Railway, your ‘secret’ benefactors, Gardner Crawley, Trevor Streeter and all who actively support you are a disgrace!!!!!
I ask you again Mr Streeter - do you sleep at night???
We aren’t....
#no2RVR #nolandgrab #political





I assume this is the section of trackbed purchased by the RVR quite recently, so no reason why they should not commence restoration? Sounds like the above poster has "lost the plot"!

 

PLUS, this is RVR private land, so who ever took those photographs, was committing a criminal offence and the B road actually is very crossable There is a believe no problem been raised about re instating the level crossing at this point .

 

No he hasn’t lost the plot. There was no reason to fell trees until after the bird nesting season. A spectacular own goal by RVR

 

That was my initial thought too, it's not as if tracklaying commences tomorrow is it?

 

Trespass is a civil offence not criminal unless covered by statute e g trespass on the railway

 

I say best of luck to R.V.R. for their link up to bodiam K.E.S.R. every yard of trackbed cleared is a step closer to their dream of linking tenderton town back to the hastings line good for the tourism industry trade for steam buffs and families looking for a day out if travelling by train to robertsbridge station and then straight on a steam train to tenderton rather than catching a bus or taxi to bodiam. if the dream comes true for all the members of both R.V.R. and K.E.S.R.

 

They hardly deserve "good luck" if they have destroyed the habitat of birds during the nesting season. Lines I know of take great care to avoid lineside clearance during the nesting period or, indeed, not to remove mature trees unless absolutely necessary. One line adjoins substantial tracts of S.S.S.I. protected land which not only has rare animal species but also unusual vegetation. This presents certain restrictions which are gladly accepted. Minimising the effect of the railway on flora and fauna is a matter of pride to them and ought to be the case generally.

 

Certainly adds ammunition to the already Anti R.V.R, campaigns cause. "My" railway the N.Y.M.R. runs through several sensitive, forestry and S.S.S.I. areas and as a whole has a good relationship with pretty well all of their management teams. Granted there have been odd "occasions" when there have been falling outs. For instance when Forestry Commission loggers stacked a pile of off-cut waste timber beside the boundary fence, which was set fire to by a passing steamer causing a fire incident. They then put in a claim on the N.Y.M.R. insurance. Whilst the Moors and their insurers said yes our engine caused the fire, it would have been significantly smaller or wouldn't have started in the first place if your loggers hadn't stacked the waste timber beside the fence......Oops! So the "Bill" was then divided 50/50. On the grounds of the Forestry Commission being partially responsible.

 

The first thing that entered my mind was when were these trees cut? The ground looks relatively undisturbed on what must, now, be a very boggy section of trackbed. So they could, feasibly, have been cut some while ago. I'm not saying that they were, but the RVR really need to issue some kind of statement to clarify this. They have been too quiet for too long.
Also, isn't Ms Ainslie one of the applicants for around 160 new build houses on sensitive land near Bexhill? AFAIK, that application is still "live".
Just saying.

 

Yes, these objectors ooze with self-interest and hypocrisy. But the RVR must pay attention to PR, and deal with this issue.

 

The RVR website has always been rather singular and has had very different characters - sometimes the stuff there has been improbably different characters
all at once and some of them really particulary good. Gone very quiet lately.

 

It would appear that the RVR have adopted a policy of "keeping their heads down", a plan which generally works well when there is opposition to something you're doing.
However, I think the RVR really needs to break cover and make some sort of statement, because if they don't then the comments made will be deemed to be true and it's not the kind of publicity that the RVR wants or needs.

 

I very much doubt that the RVR went in en-mass and felled trees and cleared scrub with chainsaws because they felt like trackbed clearing one day! I am sure they would have done Environmental Investigations and Impacts and sought advice from wildlife experts before starting any work, after all, part of the successful planning application was for these to done before any work started. However even with the 'ok' from wildlife and environmental experts it is still an unfortunate time in terms of good PR to be doing this! A statement from the RVR might be helpful in calming the anti-locals down.

 

We lived on the lane up to Salehurst for 10 years and I can say we found Robertsbridge/Salehurst a very strange place. It was inhabited with people, including the farmers, who did not accept you unless your routes were there. Maybe partly because of the bonfire boys culture which was (is) very strong. I am not in the least surprised in the closed mind attitude

 

The work is of course all fully licensed and under the direct control of a contracted team of expert ecologists to ensure that there is no interference to nesting birds, roosting bats, dormice, badgers, etc. Now that access is available along the heavily overgrown site re-homing of dormice is their main current environmental mitigation project.

 

Judging by the lack of bright chippings./ sawdust/ trimmings these trees must have been cut down months ago... someone is muck raking.

 

A very astute observation , as @ mike hart has posted, this was done in full accordance with the environmental controls, so I suspect this is more about her planning for housing being delayed, than the RVR, unless her plan is to sell her land in the future for another housing scheme on SSI land, and of course the railway would scupper any planning applications once rebuilt.

 

Let us hope you are right. Given the recent change in attitudes by many people in the UK to the environment, deforestation, climate change, pollution etc, the RVR really needs to rebut this accusation of indiscriminate destruction. Peoples' attitudes are changing and many are frightened by what they see in the media. I'm sure that this will affect our railway plans and proposals. I have never visited the RVR or the KESR or even the area (sadly) but I wish them well in the future.

 

This is just what struck me, too. Compare the photos to one of the L&Bs clearance sessions and the difference is obvious. Apart from the dull chippings, very little ground disturbance, no sign of anything, branches, logs etc having been dragged along the trackbed, as you would expect.