White City Rail Crossing to re-open...

[Joe K]

... although diverted 325 yards southwest.

Thanks for notifying me, Kay. I guess the idea is to put some distance between the access point of the crossing, and White City Adventure Playground, to eminate the possibility of the more notorious 'little angels' causing mischief. It's not ideal, residents having to use the bridge crossing, as it's such a diversion, but I don't suppose there's much option.

Is anyone likely to make representations before 2nd January?

Edit: I thought I included the file, but it doesn't seem to have taken...

[Joe K]

This may work. Apparently, there was an agreement to 'OK'...

Attachments:

[Deleted]

This diversion is instead of building a footbridge. That would have cost £1.2 million at 2008 prices - yes, I know, that's ridiculous. The planned footbridge across the River Severn at the bottom of Westgate Street is to cost in the region of £250k, so why do bridges over railway lines cost so much? A few years ago, there was the possibility of grant money from the government, but it had to be applied for by Network Rail or Gloucestershire County Council, and they both wanted the footpath to remain closed forever, so refused to co-operate with those who wanted to continue to use the crossing.

The diversion will 'only' cost something in the region of £100k, so that's less than a tenth of the cost of building a bridge. Network Rail previously insisted that there was no room beside the railway line for a footpath; it was only after they lost the public inquiry in 2009 (when they tried to get the right-of-way extinguished) that they miraculously discovered that there was more room than they had thought! Both Network Rail and Gloucestershire County Council had also claimed that if there was to be a diversion, the local badger sett would have to be moved; now they have discovered (miraculously again) that it is perfectly feasible to build a sort of boardwalk over the sett instead.

Objections can be made till 2nd January 2013.

[Joe K]

I feel pretty stupid having typed '2nd December' instead of '2nd January'. Mind, it took all my brain power to eventually spot the dashed line going down to the bridge...

I'm editing the original post to avoid confusion for other readers.

[Deleted]

The only person who would object lives very near the crossing and spent literally years claiming that he OWNED the footpath up to the crossing and could close it off any time that he felt like it. He is enormously full of bullshit. Still, he failed to take part in the public inquiry, so I'll be interested to see what he does about the prospect of having people walking past his house again.

[Deleted]

The latest information that I have is that there were various legal problems, mainly involving the badger sett, but the work is now planned to commence on 22nd April.

[Joe K]

Welcome news. Has it reached the papers yet?

[Deleted]

I would assume that Network Rail will go to the media themselves when the path is nearly finished, telling everyone who will listen that they have done this wonderful thing for the community. Of course, they did everything that they could to wriggle out of doing anything for the community. If they, and the county council, hadn't been unco-operative arseholes, we could have had a bridge there years ago, paid for by central government using money that simply isn't available now. Remember, when this all blew up seven years ago, there was still lots of grant money washing around everywhere, and we could have had some of it.

If the Ramblers and I hadn't put up such a fight, the crossing would have been closed, the right-of-way extinguished, and that would have been the end of it. It's sad that the county council believes that it is there to serve Network Rail, rather than the electorate of Gloucestershire.

[Deleted]

The work was supposed to start last Monday (22nd), but anothe plot-holder told me that he ahd spoken to the contractor last week, and he said that they're not starting for another couple of weeks or so. I haven't been over there since Sunday, so I'm not sure if anything is actually happening at the moment.

I did notice that the entrance at the Hartland Road end has been widened; now that's what I said they should do a number of years ago, when they were planning the new security gates, but I was ignored. This must have cost someone a lot of extra money.

[Joe K]

I've been meaning to pop down to see how things are going. Guess I save myself a wasted trip.

Tweeted the story, but my 'Bridge over troubled slaughter?' line got bupkiss...

Bridge built over badger set in Robinswood

Edited to add the article link (yes they really did say 'Robinswood'...)

[Deleted]

Maryam is writing a follow-up story about the new footpath. It should be in the paper next week.

[Joe K]

I did visit the site a few days ago. I see that only half of the allotment gate is now daubed with anti-climb paint, which is rather inexplicable. I'll be following the work with interest, hopefully.

[Deleted]

Maryam didn't phone me on Sunday, as she had promised to, so I don't know now if there will be a follow-up story or not.

The lack of anti-climb paint is not inexplicable at all - it's simply that the new gate has only been there for a couple of weeks and no-one has got around to painting it.

When you were there, had the contractor's equipment been moved onto the site? It was there yesterday, but not a week earlier. It's been parked on a new hard surface made up of crushed hardcore. I do hope that the surface will be kept as a new car park when the work is finished; it was 'agreed' a number of years ago (2008 or 2009) that there could be a car park on the left hand side of the entrance, as that area was already contaminated from decades of being used as a place for burning waste material of all types. Then the compacted but clean area on the right hand side of the entrance could be turned into a couple of new plots.

[Joe K]

The mini digger and cabins were there on Friday. It looks like it will be slow going if that's all they have.

I didn't realise a new gate had been needed. I recall seeing a damaged gate on my travels, but that might have been somewhere else.

[Deleted]

The old gate wasn't damaged, but presumably it's not worth much more than its scrap value now. Now that the entrance is wider, there can be no excuse for the city farm not delivering manure; they've had a spare key for nearly a year but have not delivered any yet. I must give them a prompt.