Bala lake Railway.

I take it we are talking about the same person (Julian Birley BEM) who knows his way around fundraising?

 

You may very well think that. I couldn't possibly comment.

 

According to a Facebook post credited to Julian Burley, there is good and bad news for the Bala Lake Railway. Good news; part of the extension is ready for track. Bad news; there is a suggestion to refuse planning permission for environmental reasons.

https://www.facebook.com/554777894/...Eay11ezGuTueD7DbgAdgSLDhHiua4rkuCiZl/?app=fbl

 

Wouldn't it have been wise to obtain the planning approval before spending money on the extension ? Or am I missing something here ?

 

look here:-

https://www.balalakerailwaytrust.org.uk/news.html

 

Is anyone else having trouble to reply via the link? It keeps saying my name is missing when it is clearly in the marked box.

 

Unfortunately Wales is overrun with petty officials who do everything they can to put obstacles in the way of progress. Railways and roads are fair game to these people, who seem to specialise in preventing necessary improvements to our transport infrastructure and creating traffic jams with their pointless speed restrictions.
This situation will continue until the (South)Welsh Labour government is either defeated or abolished.

Bob.

 

Yes. I eventually got around it by also putting my name in the "Company" box. I wonder how many others have tried and given up on it?

 

Perhaps they see a bigger picture though. Tourists come to Wales because it is a scenic beauty spot. North Wales is probably one of the most beautiful places in the UK. If it is paved over, the air polluted and the rivers full of sewage there won't be a tourist industry.

Now I'm not saying this would be a good decision. I don't really know enough about the details to know either way but I'll give my opnion anyway.

If the river dee is polluted this needs to tackled at the source and how much this one extension will really add to this is not easily measured. However I can understand the mindset that "we have a problem. We don't want to make that problem worse before we've worked out how to make it better". It's not just mindless pen pushing but trying to protect something special so everyone can enjoy it. Not just people who like trains.

 

Thanks for that info, I was struggling as well!

 

I get the impression that the Bala Lake is caught up in a general problem, not being singled out - an article I came across said there were 3500 planning applications currently impacted, and so I'm sure it will be possible to find a way forward, as that logjam has to be broken if that part of wales is not to become an economic wasteland. The problem seems to be too few sewage treatment plants with capacity to remove phosphate, so addressing that issue look likely to have to be the way head. I personally think it's unlikely that the contribution of human excreta is a big problem in that part of the world, humans are probably comfortably outweighed by animal numbers and the use of agricultural fertilisers, so that's the second place to look for changes.

 

Nonsense, and please refrain from silly political rants .

 

You don't live in Wales and obviously don't know what's going on, especially in the North.

Bob.

 

Reading the article, I don't believe the refusal relates to railway pollution it seems to be more about the, ahem, waste material that additional visitors would produce.

 

That's rubbish, tbh.
Petty bureaucracy is commonplace all over the world, and in the UK, most people have similar complaints about the planning system, wherever they live or which local / national political party runs their area.

And I've lived and worked in Mid and North Wales, although do not do so at this precise time.

 

As someone who lives and works in North Wales, I'm very happy to confirm this is total codswallop. and mostly the view of English tourists.

 

To me some of this does not add up. If one part of the local council were going to oppose the construction of the extension why was the Bala Lake Railway told about the work being done on the weir? Also why were they then asked to contribute to the reconstruction costs as well?

The plans to get into Bala have been know for a long time in fact I would suggest that when the railway was first put together the plan even then was to get into Bala. So there has been plenty of time to oppose the scheme from day 1.

I am sure that the only difference now, is that more people are aware of environmental issues which is a reasonable view to take, if they want the BLR to help pay for a new effluent plant near the new station, then any extra cost would have been added into the development plan.

I am sure I have read some where that the local council have been pushing for the railway to get in to Bala for sometime so I am sure there may be a bit how to raise some interest in the story?

 

Even if the council are in support, it could well be NRW or Welsh Water that are the stumbling block.

I really hope they are able to sort it, it's a lovely little line run by a small team of great people who have worked incredibly hard on this.

Chris

 

AS I posted earlier, this seems to be more of a general issue, not the railway being singled out, so I'm sure it will be sorted out, just perhaps not as quickly as first thought.

 

61624 is correct.

Recent changes in law (in the UK and indeed in many parts of the EU) require planning developments to consider the amounts of additional phosphates being produced. These are created naturally but can increase with human activity. New developments need to ensure that they do not increase phosphates running into rivers. Such phosphates can increase algae in water courses and thus cause loss of habit for wildlife. In Wales, there are 9 rivers that are designated Special Areas of Conservation, the Dee being one of them. Bala Lake Railway is therefore caught up in this. Had they applied for planning say five years ago this would not have been an issue but now, in order for the planning authority to determine the application, they will need to demonstrate that the extension will create a net benefit to the phosphate levels. And for this, the council will probably be guided by Natural Resources Wales (essentially the Welsh equivalent of the Environment Agency in England). In practice, this is not easy as no one is sure how this can be demonstrated; hence the backlog of applications across the UK. In simplistic terms, it just means preventing waste from the development going into the rivers. A new sewage system in Bala would help but this relies on other third parties which would not help in this case.

Like all governments, many examples of poor decisions can be identified and the Welsh Assembly would be no different. However in this instance, whoever would have been in power the same situation would have arisen. It comes down to whether any development complies with some habitat Act that I cannot remember exactly but has been in place for many years but which has been varied recently through clarification on phosphate levels.