‘Favourable’ response to lynton extension plans
local authority estimates rebuilt line would contribute millions to the local economy.
PROPOSALS TO extend the Lynton & Barnstaple Railway have met with a positive response from the Exmoor National Park Authority.
The LBR submitted the extra information required to support its planning applications to the ENPA on January 30 (SR463). It includes over 50 revised or additional plans, as well as a 300-page supplementary statement dealing with both the railway’s responses to the ENPA, and comments made by objectors to the plans. The ENPA’s consultant, appointed to make an economic appraisal of the development, was generally favourable, saying that it would generate the equivalent of 41 full-time jobs, of which 28 would be additional to the area, and with the potential to contribute £13.8 million (gross) to the local economy by 2031. The ENPA consultant forecasts that the indirect economic and social benefits of the railway would be to help the regeneration of Lynton and Lynmouth, and to raise awareness of newspaper magnate Sir George Newnes, who promoted the LBR and the Lynton & Lynmouth Cliff Railway. Success for the railway could also boost the status of the national park, and Exmoor agriculture would benefit from a higher profile and demand for local food production. The railway’s own consultant reviewed the business plan alongside the consultants’ reports, placing them in the context of rural and sustainable tourism, noting: “Should the application be granted, the work will be the largest single item of capital investment in the Exmoor National Park since the completion of the 50-metre deep Wimbleball Reservoir in 1979,” and commenting: “There is every reason to believe that the Lynton & Barnstaple Railway can perform as well as or, given the experience of the management of the Welsh Highland now available to the LBR, even better than the Welsh Highland Railway.” Parracombe resident Louise Grob, one of the project’s main objectors, has commissioned her own consultant to comment on the application, and obtained a legal opinion on the issues to be considered by ENPA in determining the applications.