Idea steams ahead

Jan 7 2008 by Brian Daniel, The Journal

PLANS to resurrect a steam rail link in Northumberland are back on track, after a bid to create a right of way hit the buffers.

The Aln Valley Railway Society (AVRS) is trying to restore the three-mile line between Alnwick and Alnmouth, but has faced a threat to its plans since 2002 when an application was made to recognise the route as a footpath.

After a five year wait, a public inquiry was staged and a Government inspector has now rejected the right of way application.

Roger Jermy, a member of the AVRS committee, last night said the group should now be able to proceed to a planning application to get the project off the ground.

He said: “We are absolutely delighted. You can imagine carrying on for five years with first of all that hurdle and then people who were not in the know saying ‘Why are you not doing anything?’ It is very hard.

“There was a definite feeling of elation once we found that the footpath plans had been turned down. Everyone was absolutely thrilled.”

The proposal to have the route designated as a right of way was made to Northumberland County Council by Graham Skirrow, of Lesbury.

He argued that the land had been used as a path by many walkers, cyclists and horse riders for over 20 years, the minimum requirements for orders to be made.

The council looked into his proposal and backed it, publishing an order to that effect with 50 regular users coming forward to give evidence in support.

But the AVRS and the Northumberland Estates both objected to the proposals, with the latter claiming it had never intended the land to be used as a path and had actually put up gates with locks and signs to prevent public access, which were often vandalised.

Planning inspector Barney Grimshaw has now ruled that the designation should not be made.

Mr Skirrow, of Lesbury Road, last night said he planned to speak to the council to find out whether it is to appeal the decision on legal grounds.

He said: “I do not think that the whole thing is particularly equitable. You have got to accept that decisions are made; you have got to accept that someone is going to lose.

“I just get the impression that this is kind of a whitewash.”

The AVRS, which was formed in 1997, was originally hoping to create a steam link between Alnmouth station and Alnwick’s Barter Books, which once housed the town’s rail hub.

However, the cost of taking trains over the A1 has forced a rethink with the current plan to stop trains at Alnwick’s Lionheart Enterprise Park, where there would be a park and ride scheme.

The first stage of the project will be to seek permission to lay track between the enterprise park and a bridge over Aln Dykes, half way to Alnmouth. But an application is not likely for “several months” and the society does not expect to be on site before the summer.

It is hoped the opening for business of the first section of track will generate income to help toward the cost of a bridge over the A1.

A cyclepath is to be developed alongside the railway in partnership with Sustrans.