Southwold Railway

We did try - very hard. no response from

We did try - hard - but had no response from BnaM despite many people trying. So we had to look again - hence the Ruston. James

 

Right of Way on the trackbed has been granted. However, if there are enough complaints, then it has to be referred to the planning authorities for final decision. Details in the LMM segment

Our most valid argument, I believe, is that we are granted full planning permission for an operational railway in 2024, and two sidings then and now cross the imtended PROW: we have run a passenger train there (and many goods trains), and in 2025 were recognised and listed by ORR as a UK Operational Railway. This a PROW cannot be imposed later over the track, as there is a fundamental contradiction, and ORR, as a national body, trumps any purely local designations. And - we were there first! So please help us not be stifled at birth, but submitting objections as soon as you are avble - it is life or death for us. Thanks James

 

Can you provide the sample letter and email address of the council as an attachment to the thread?
I'm happy to object.

 

If you open the video in YouTube, all the URLs you need are in the description.

 

Blythburgh Parish Council (‘BPC’) has applied for a Public Right of Way along the footpath from the A12 to another footpath, Church Path. Its legal status until the application was made was a Permissive Footpath, whereby the landowner permitted members of the public to use the footpath. The section from the station to Church Path is along the trackbed of the Southwold Railway. The new public footpath will be 3 metres wide. We opposed BPC’s application vehemently because we had intended to extend our railway to Church Path. At the Committee Meeting mentioned below, inter alia, we submitted to the Committee that the Parish Council had only made the application to thwart our plan to extend our railway to Church Path. The hearing was recorded by SCC and is on YouTube https://www.youtube.com/live/m3uSoIDQiRA?si=Bg5qFs_EvWt0-Q1a
The decision to grant BPC’s application was taken by Suffolk County Council on 3rd February at a meeting of its Development and Regulation Committee in Ipswich, when the Committee considered the evidence before it. Its decision was made after it had heard submissions by the representatives of Blythburgh Parish Council and us (HSNGR). The Committee decided unanimously to grant BPC’s application and the Public Right of Way Modification Order was made by SCC on 11th February 2026. The Order has yet to be confirmed and part of the procedure, before it can be confirmed, is for it to be advertised on site and in a newspaper, in this case the East Anglian Daily Times. Please see the photographs of the Order on our site. Objections can be made in writing at the address shown on the Notice. No email address is mentioned on the notice but we have found an email address and it is prow.east@suffolk.gov.uk. We presume that objections by email will be accepted by SCC, since such communications would be “in writing” but if you wish to object by email, we advise that you should first check with SCC.

 

I found the following https://www.suffolk.gov.uk/asset-library/definitive-maps/DMMOs/co668.pdf

 

That would imply that email objections would not be accepted

 

In my experience of crossings on the big railway, a PROW can be imposed across an operational railway. I won't go into the specifics but the process can be quite perverse especially when the next step is an extinguishment order!

 

I just received an acknowledgement to the objection that I emailed to PROW.East @ suffolk.gov.uk so . . .

 

OK, I did it, I found the model in the description of the video (need to scroll down), used the template, and added a few extra comments. Sent the letter as an attachment to an email.


When the GWSR bought the line shortly after closure and started to relay the tracks, some local residents were furious.

In a separate incident, a Broadway resident applied to the county to have our station trackbed converted to a public ROW. He marched right through our construction site as we were building, claiming 'I've walked this trackbed for 30 years, and you're not stopping me now.' Something similar seems to be happening here. Entitlement to other people's property, if you ask me.

The GWSR is now the biggest (or second biggest) tourist attraction in Gloucestershire. Would you stop that now, for one walker?

 

Fair enough. It was just my reading of it.
Glad to hear that your message was acknowledged

 

I got an acknowledgement too, a fairly personalised one, which was kind. So I hope my objection will hit the spot (to be added to the case files, it said)

 

Breva - and all who have already responded - our thanks. i doubt that SCC have often had such a number. it all helps - presumably - with their decision to pass it on to the district council planners, which might be good for us. lots more time to send objections yet. - SCC and ESC will cease to exist in two years, so maybe the long grass beckons.....
meanwhile - first passenger trains in 97 years run on Easter Monday if all goes well
james

 

Prep is all done - weather looks good - station looks exceptionally spruce - so if you are in the area, why not drop by and take a (very short!) ride on this first day of public trains since 1929? Everything at the event is free - including light refreshments - except the train ride itself - that's only £10.00 pp - not a lot for participating in an occasion which will come only once.....

 

Good luck to you!

 

James, good luck on Monday. Sorry, I won't be there, but someone has just sent me a 4mm scale brass etch Southwold coach to look at making for them.

Colin

 

thanks colin and mike for your good wishes. they were very nice coaches indeed - closest you can experience now are the replica pickerings at welshpool. we do have an ambition to build one in the future - but are concerned whether a cleminson underframe - somewhat controversial victorian technology - would be allowed to carry passengers - the isle of man 6-wheeled coaches operate under a different safety regime, i believe.
hence our construction of the cleminson coal wagon as a test bed - that does seem to work ok, on considerably tighter curves than on the original sr. james ps - apologies for the lack of caps and punctuation - writing from hospital bed with one hand!

 

Sadly. I'll not be able to visit, either.
But I wish you all the best [Health & railway -wise] @James Hewett

As for [Manx] Cleminson carriages ... we need to talk sometime !

 

Thanks very much. Yes - no problem (NB the MNR Clem is on Southwold Railway Trust territory and very much up to them, and its owning group).
I did try to get advice in various quarters about the viability of a replica Clem taking passengers - but received nothing definitive. Still - quite a way ahead! JH