£1.4 MILLION GRANT FROM EUROPE FOR LEEK EXTENSION
Major windfall will cover 80% of Churnet Valley Railway’s near mile long project costs.
A£1.4 million European grant will cover 80% of the costs of the Churnet Valley Railway’s northern extension to Leek.
The European Agriculture Fund for Rural Development has awarded £1,427,906.83 to the CVR’s ‘Reconnect Leek’ project, which will involve just under a mile of track being relaid from the current railhead just north of Leekbrook Junction to a new station off Barnfields Road, the original Leek station site having been redeveloped.
It will also include the re-laying of the triangle at Leekbrook Junction – the first original example to be rebuilt in mainland UK preservation – and the provision of a footpath along the line into Leek.
Describing the 80% figure as “pretty unprecedented”, CVR managing director Greg Wilson also revealed that the railway is in the early stages of negotiations with Staffordshire Moorlands District Council about the possibility of constructing a visitor centre inside the triangle.
For the Leek extension, he said: “We’ve got all the contractors lined up – I’m sure there will be hiccups, but we’re all set to go.”
It is part of wider expansion plans for the CVR in the coming years, including a southern extension to a new holiday village at Oakamoor, and the reopening of the mothballed freight-only line from Leekbrook Junction to Stoke-on-Trent.
Paying tribute to the support of Staffordshire Moorlands District Council and its leader Councillor Sybil Ralphs, CVR chairman Anthony Hancock added: “Although we have secured this fantastic amount, we also need to raise the final 20% ourselves, so we hope to welcome as many visitors as possible in 2020 to help raise funds.”
The CVR had suspended all services from March 23 owing to the coronavirus outbreak, and hopes to reopen on May 8, subject to review.