Help save the green spaces around Digswell viaduct
IN 2019, Heritage Railway published a letter from myself, directing readers’ attention to a proposed housing development in the fields surrounding Digswell viaduct in Welwyn.
I am sure readers will be familiar with this picturesque and historic site. The viaduct is Grade II listed, and important to railway history and preservation, being a view much used by photographers and film-makers of heritage rail.
Digswell viaduct is the first piece of original Victorian viaduct on the line out of London, and the view surrounding it is one of few unspoilt and untouched historic views of railway viaducts left in the country.
Proposal
While the proposed development was in 2019 rejected in part on these heritage grounds, that decision is now being reviewed, and the fields and valley surrounding the viaduct are once again threatened with the building of a housing estate around the viaduct.
Planning officials have questioned whether the listed structure, the viaduct, would have its heritage damaged by housing built on the view surrounding it.
If, like myself, readers consider that the unspoilt and uninterrupted view of Digswell Viaduct is important to railway history, to national heritage, and to the continued preservation of both, I would ask them to join myself and others, including the parish council, in campaigning to stop the housing development on this site. Anyone who previously commented on the plans has the right to submit a further objection.
Contact
In addition, I would like to urge readers to write expressing their support to the parish objections to Welwyn Parish Council, Lockleys Drive, Welwyn, Hertfordshire, AL6 9NT, or email office@welwynpc.org.uk
Alternatively, contact the local MP – Transport Secretary Grant Shapps (Welwyn Hatfield Conservative Association, Maynard House, The Common, Hatfield, AL10 0NF, email shappsg@parliament.uk) – expressing their opposition to the plan.
It is important the history and significance of the valley surrounding Digswell viaduct is communicated to the planning committee. The view of the viaduct is as important as the structure itself, but currently has no listed status or protection.
Readers may like to join myself and others in explaining why the view of Digswell viaduct must be preserved.
Madeline H Stephens, Welwyn, Hertfordshire.