Proposals connected to the reinstatement of the heritage railway line at Bodiam are set to be considered by a senior county councillor next week.
On Monday, June 16 Cllr Claire Dowling, East Sussex County Council’s lead member for transport and environment, will be asked to sign-off on the use of “bespoke” legal agreements connected with a project from the Rother Valley Railway (RVR).
The proposals involve the reconstruction of the disused railway line between Robertsbridge and Bodiam. Once built, this line would connect the mainline network to the existing heritage line between Bodiam and Tenterden, which is operated by Kent and East Sussex Railway.
Cllr Dowling is being asked to approve the use of legal agreements to secure the construction of two level crossings associated with the project. These crossings would be built over Junction Road in Bodiam and Northbridge Street in Robertsbridge.
Under normal circumstances, legal agreements for highways works would be approved by officers using delegated powers. But, officers say, the “unique nature” of the project requires the use of “bespoke agreements”, which need to be signed-off by Cllr Dowling.
The railway line also requires the construction of a third level crossing on the A21, although this road is controlled by National Highways rather than the county council. As such, it will be subject to a separate process.
The use of the level crossings has proven to be a controversial element of the project in the past. The issue had been a common concern raised by objectors during the project’s initial planning application. More than 100 objections were raised during this planning process, which resulted in Rother District Council approving the scheme in 2018.
There were significantly more objections raised during a planning inquiry connected with RVR’s bid to secure a Transport and Works Act (TWA) Order.
This TWA order was granted by the secretary of state for transport in May 2023. Among other things, the TWA order allows RVR to build the level crossings and to use compulsory purchase powers to gain ownership of part of the land where the railway line will be built.
At the time, a planning inspector noted how concerns about the safety and traffic impact of these level crossings — particularly the A21 crossing — had been a ‘prominent’ part of the more than 1,000 objections submitted to the inquiry.
However, the planning inspector judged the level crossings to each have an acceptable impact, so would not weigh against the project.
In coming to this conclusion, the inspector noted how National Highways had withdrawn its initial objection after judging “that the queues and delays likely to be associated with the operation of the A21 level crossing are unlikely to adversely affect the free flow [of] traffic.”
Image Credits: Foulger Rail Photos https://www.flickr.com/photos/justinfoulger/ CC https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0/.