A decision to shelve plans to reopen two Derbyshire railway lines has been dubbed “shortsighted”, “disappointing” and “extremely wrong” by a leading councillor.
In a Derbyshire County Council meeting, Cllr Tony King, cabinet member for clean growth and regeneration, hit out at the cost-cutting decision from central Government to cancel plans to reopen the Ivanhoe and Barrow Hill railway lines through Derbyshire.
Rachel Reeves, chancellor, announced in July that the Restoring Your Railway scheme was scrapped, ending the ongoing plans for the returning routes through Castle Gresley and Staveley, and with them hopes of significant economic regeneration at both ends of the county.
If the Ivanhoe plans had been rolled out it would have removed Swadlincote from being part of a notorious list of eight English towns which have a population of more than 30,000 but do not have an operational railway station and are not within five kilometres of one.
The county council last detailed the cost of the planned Barrow Hill Line project at £93.5 million to £113.8 million and the Ivanhoe Line project at £123 million to £186 million.
Local contributions were to be between £15.2 million to £18.5 million for Barrow Hill and £20 million to £30.3 million for Ivanhoe.
Cllr Stuart Swann, Linton division, dubbed the scrapping of the scheme “shortsighted” and asked a full council meeting for an update on the plans.
He said he had hoped the Ivanhoe scheme would have taken traffic off the congested A444.
Cllr King, responding on behalf of Cllr Carolyn Renwick, cabinet member for infrastructure and environment, said: “It is deeply disappointing that both the Ivanhoe and Barrow Hill railway line projects which had previously been accepted into the Restoring Your Railways programme set up by the previous government have been shelved.
“These schemes have been promoted locally by this council, its partners, its communities and the former local MP.
“Our officers have supported the development of these projects from inception to outline business case stage, working closely with both the Department for Transport and Network Rail.
“By reaching the outline business case stage the projects were well-advanced with preliminary station designs, service patterns and expected economic benefits all being complete.
“It is therefore very shortsighted that the decision to pause the Restoring Your Railways programme has been made at the very point that both projects were seeking approval to enter the final stage of the preparation of delivery.
“Not only is it shortsighted, it is very disappointing.
“The decision now means that the communities of Barrow Hill, Killamarsh and Castle Gresley will have to wait much longer for a railway station and to have these vital connections restored, hugely impacting real economic benefits with the potential to regenerate local economies by opening access to jobs, education, supporting new housing developments and boosting tourism.
“Both projects will now be held in abeyance and will not progress to a full business case.”
Cllr King said the council would hand the documents for both projects to the East Midlands Combined County Authority for consideration as part of any transport projects for the region, and said the county would continue to “lobby to overturn the decision”.
He said: “The East Midlands are the bottom region for investment in transport and this is particularly true in rail.
“Anyone who uses EMR to go to London and uses local services knows how far we are behind.
“There were some flashes of light with HS2 at one time, they keep talking about the Midland Mainline electrification… I don’t think I shall live to see it but maybe it will come.
“These projects are in areas where we could have really regenerated the area.
“Looking at the Barrow Hill line, for instance, there are communities that have been left behind, that are isolated and are in industrial areas which make it difficult to move and communicate.
“These projects would have hit far beyond their wait and would have been an extremely valuable contribution to people’s mobility and communications within the East Midlands.
“It is absolutely vital we keep the pressure on to get these projects done.
“We were 95 per cent of the way there to getting them done and then the ground is cut from under you and that, I think, is extremely wrong.”
Ms Reeves said the Restoring Your Railway fund needed to be cut, saving £85 million in committed funding, to plug a £21.9 billion black hole in public finances.
Individual schemes could be assessed by Transport Secretary Louise Haigh, but for now projects yet to progress to their building stages had been halted.
In total, the Government’s halting of what it called “unaffordable road and railway schemes” will save it a projected £785 million.
Ms Reeves had told Parliament: “The previous Government also made a series of commitments on transport, promises that people expected to be delivered and promises that many members across this House campaigned on in good faith, but the Conservative party has failed them.
“We have seen from the National Audit Office the chaos that the previous Government presided over, with projects over budget and delayed again and again.
“The spending audit has revealed £1 billion of unfunded transport projects that have been committed to next year, so my right honourable friend the Transport Secretary will undertake a thorough review of these commitments.
“As part of that work, she has agreed not to move forwards with projects that the previous Government refused to publicly cancel, despite knowing full well that they were unaffordable.
“That includes proposed work on the A303 and the A27, and my right honourable friend will also cancel the Restoring Your Railway programme, saving £85 million next year, with individual projects to be assessed through her review. If we cannot afford it, we cannot do it.”
