Rother Valley Railway

An interesting piece by the RVR.

It appears to have upset some locals who believe that they should have been consulted first. If they had been told, I am sure that they would have been complaining whatever.

Moaners can be found at https://www.facebook.com/groups/293129294067750

 

I don't know what the work was, but is it not customary and appropriate to inform residents beforehand by leaflets through their doors, rather than take a chance that they might happen to look at a website?

 

It was delivery of materials for building an access path to rebuild the embankment.
I must respectfully disagree-if they leafleted residents every time they had a delivery of materials, they’d be bankrupt before the first sleeper was laid!
As pointed out on the facebook group, farmers don’t leaflet when they’re moving combines around or muck spreading, so why should the railway be subject to a different set of rules?
One lady seems to think that the railway should be aware of the house moves in the area and inform new residents of their plans.
There are quite a few people on that group who are obviously very anti railway, and are happy to use double standards and a good dollop of nimbyism thrown in!

 

I don't know exactly what RVR has done in the way of publicity but the complaint seems to be that nothing was posted in their local Information facebook page. Someone from in the area affected in the village said that they had had a letter.

Fencing has been erected in a couple of fields and others have posted pictures. I live in the area and noticed around a week ago that a gate leading into the field adjacent to the Level cross by North Bridge street had vegetation cleared and metal work fixed to the gate to make it more secure. It would seem there have been deliveries by lorry of materials to construct a short access road and this is what caused the posts to facebook.

RVR have had lorries delivering to their other access road on Church Road and to Robertsbridge Station but there have been no complaints about this.

 

There is a post which says in part "And please ask the railway supporters to stop being rude to people who live in their village asking polite questions." I didn't actually see any rude posts from supporters - there were rude posts but not from supporters.

Incidentally the house on the south side of North Bridge Street next to the access road is for sale.

 

If that was all it was then I agree that leafletting would have been OTT.

 

Its hard to imagine now, but in the early days of Swanage Railway there were a few vociferous local objectors. One chap lived alongside the railway and had a banner that read 'Railway go away' he was interviewed by the local paper in 1980 ish and he said: 'Swanage railway? It will never happen, just like the Channel Tunnel'

 

In 1964 my parents bought a house alongside the Ashford - Maidstone line. The seller said: Don't worry about the railway, it's going to be closed soon.

40 years later I went along it in a (deviated) Eurostar !

 

I guess a simple notice on the gate saying what was going on might at least be a compromise, seen this done also by utility companies, at least anyone interested will know what is going on.

Sent from my SM-A556B using Tapatalk

 

Nice to see a particular individual still following the goings on, and even finding time to comment. I thought, for a minute, that she'd just given up....

 

I was surprised to see her comments even though brief. I would have expected that she has been advised to limit her comments on this topic.

 

So good to see trackbed work making progress : https://rvrailway.blogspot.com/

 

It's really good to see actual work on the track bed, I guess you could say its conformation that the extension has moved from the planning stage to the groundworks stage, I just hope people remember that this is a building site and that only contractors will have access, no public assess, and to not trespass on the other land surrounding the works, its essentual that their remains at least cordial relations between the landowners and the RVR. and any trespass will have a negative effect on that.

 

Another post in the blog has photographs of Austens Bridge before and after the 'damage' which is more extensive than I thought. Scaffolding has been erected to prevent debris going into the Rother and to enable repairs. Things are moving on apace.

 

What is the nature of the damage, It looks like at some point the beams have been filled with concrete and that the reinforcing rods have blown out

 

Funnily enough got a letter from a utility outfit about roadworks the other week. First time ever, my thought was why are they wasting postage on this, bugger all I can do about it.

 

Difficult to assess without knowing exactly what it was like before. Looks like some of the cross beams have had bits removed and bits cut out of the side bridge panels. The blog says it was unexpected 'damage' which took place in June 2023. Probably around the same time that Bridge 25 was removed.

 

They probably use a mail out service which has very heavily discounted postage rates. It may work out cheaper that paying someone to deliver by hand.

 

What state was bridge 25 in, before it was removed, and does anyone know why the bridge was removed, I'm imagining this was done before the TWPO was approved with the agreement of the then land owner, but by then, of course wasnt Austin's bridge already owned by the railway, So its possible the deed wasn't done with that families agreement, or knowledge.

 

I think Bridges 25 were intact before they were removed - when RVR got access to the trackbed they weren't there. I think the 'removal' and 'damage' was done after the TWAO was approved but before it was 'made'. As far as I know Austin's bridge was NOT owned by the railway at the time of the 'damage'. I think we all have theories about what happened but I am not going to speculate.