ASHBURTON STATION SITE AT RISK FROM NPA MASTERPLAN
Published at 14:36 on Tuesday 2nd June 2015
Tags: Dartmoor, Ashburton, South Devon Railway, Heritage, GWR.
GWR 2251 Class 0-6-0 No. 3205, approaches Hood Bridge on 30th April 2014, with the 14:15 from Buckfastleigh to Totnes. Brian Kennedy
The Friends of Ashburton Station group has expressed dismay after the Dartmoor National Park Authority (DNPA) published recommendations for its Chuley Road Masterplan that apparently failed to acknowledge the considerable support expressed by local residents and businesses.
Despite strong local lobbying by the ‘Friends’, only minor changes have been made to the report, with no proposals being made to safeguard the route and station.
Commenting on the report, South Devon Railway Trust (SDRT) Chairman Alan Taylor has issued a statement saying: “The South Devon Railway Trust has supported the ambitions of the Friends of Ashburton Station in seeking to protect the old station buildings and route of the former railway from development so that our steam trains might once again return to the Dartmoor town at some point in the future.”
“So, we read the conclusions of the Dartmoor National Park Authority (DNPA) report with both sadness and disappointment — a veritable railway heritage gem of the Great Western Railway in Ashburton station has not been safeguarded from development, and the unique opportunity to protect the railway’s route into the town for the future and the considerable benefit of the town that it would bring has seemingly been spurned.
“Despite letters of support from DNPA following a previous engineering feasibility study about our trains perhaps returning to Ashburton, we were not consulted during the recent consultation into the Chuley Road Masterplan and were only made aware of the details at a very late stage in the process.
Mr Taylor concluded saying that: “As a result, our opportunity to provide fully detailed proposals for returning the railway to Ashburton was severely limited. Whilst additional information was provided to the DNPA planners during the last few months, we were still not consulted during the creation of the ‘Ashburton Railway – Appraisal of Options Report (April 2015)’, which contains many inaccuracies.”
These inaccuracies include statements that compulsory purchase powers would not be available to the Railway, and that the demolition of residential property would be required in order to reinstate the link; neither of these is in fact the case. Reference is made to significant engineering works and significant land take around the River Dart crossing, with the route quoted bearing no resemblance to the one proposed by the ‘Friends’ and the SDR. The fact that the SDRs Buckfastleigh headquarters would become an intermediate station is viewed as a disadvantage, with the DNPA clearly failing to note the examples made by several existing lines such as the Isle of Wight Steam Railway or the East Lancashire Railway. References within the report show that the railway is clearly viewed solely as an attraction and not a transport link, and assumes that all visitors would reach Ashburton by road. It also mentions that there is insufficient support from the local community, despite the ‘Friends’ supplying evidence that the DNPA officers requested the group to stop asking supporters to write in as they had received “enough correspondences”.
The ‘Friends’ group believes that the lack of railway consultation has severely disadvantaged the local community’s ability to make a case for the retention of the trackbed, and to have it fairly heard. It alleges that the DNPA’s requirements for ‘evidence’ to support the case for alterations were wholly unachievable in the timescale allowed, and that consequently its case has been judged unfavourably and unfairly dismissed.
Mr Taylor continues: “We still believe that failing to safeguard a route for a future railway reconnection is a lost opportunity that Ashburton will regret. We also hope that this decision by DNPA doesn’t result in the town sleepwalking into oblivion by adopting a plan that draws people away from the town centre rather than bringing them to it. So, I make a final appeal to the members of the Dartmoor National Park Authority to think again ahead of this decision and to come and visit the South Devon Railway this week to see how we operate and what Ashburton might be missing out on – they will be made very welcome!”
An appraisal of the railway proposals, including the town’s former railway station, can be seen at Item A5 here.
For a general overview of the Chuley Road scheme and links to other relevant publications, see the Dartmoor website.
