Kentish Express Ashford & District
Pollution at railway works hits planning for museum
Modelling enthusiasts begin seeking new site as clean-up costs soar
A new site is being considered for the long-awaited model railway museum and education centre in Ashford because of potential pollution clean-up costs.
The centre was originally planned to go into the old Klondyke Railway Works site in Ashford’s Newtown area.
Ashford International Model Railway Education Centre (AIMREC) posted an update on Facebook on Tuesday saying an environmental assessment had revealed the site had substantial levels of historic pollution, meaning the clean-up costs would run into hundreds of thousands of pounds.
The statement said: “As a charity, we could not contemplate paying both a very full price for the land relative to our site valuation and incurring significant decontamination costs on top of that, before a single brick was laid.
“We were only willing to proceed if we could get a significant price reduction to offset the clean-up liability.
“Unfortunately such a reduction was not agreed by the vendor. After careful deliberation, we have therefore decided not to proceed with this particular site.”
Now the organisers say that Ashford Borough Council is willing to continue support for the project at a different local site and that trustees have identified three or four potentially suitable sites close to Ashford International Station.
The statement continues: “It would be our intention, once a suitable alternative site is secured, to utilise as much as possible of our existing plans for the centre.
“The nature of any alternative site may dictate design changes, but we hope to keep those to a minimum. Inevitably, this decision has had an impact on overall timing but we are nevertheless confident that, if a suitable site can be selected in the next few months, we will still be able to work to a centre opening date of spring 2020.
“While the evaluation of alternative properties goes on, we are intending to launch a number of exciting initiatives during the second half of 2017. These will include a visitor information centre to promote the project and technical workshop events to broaden the base of skilled volunteers.”
The original centre plans hoped to benefit from the three million shoppers who visit the Designer Outlet nearby. The Who frontman Roger Daltrey is a joint trustee of the project.
A council spokesman said: “We are pleased to continue to support AIMREC with this exciting attraction which will help to substantially boost our tourism offer.
“Ashford has a long, proud railway heritage and this centre will showcase this to visitors though displaying railway models and other exhibits from our past, present and future.”