5 0th An
niver s Issue ary !
The
Beestonian Here’s to the next 50!
Issue no.
50
N
Off The Rails
etwork Rail are keen to stop us crossing their tracks. We think it’s them that have crossed a line….
They weren’t exactly brazen about it. In mid-December, a letter dropped through the door of a few select houses, all close by the rail line. It could so easily have been missed: that time of year usually has people rather distracted by the looming festive holidays, and with the daily letterbox fodder swollen with Christmas Cards and junk mail, you’d be forgiven for overlooking it. But those who did open it up and read found it contained a bit of a bombshell: Network Rail were looking to close three paths that run across the line, on the rather spurious grounds of safety. We had until the end of the month to lodge an objection. Curiously, these letters were post-dated late November. Had they been floating around in the ether / sorting office all that time? Nope.
A cynic may suggest that this was done on purpose to keep the number of objections to a minimum. However, we at The Beestonian are a positive bunch so accept that this was, as Network Rail claimed when this was bought to their attention, ‘an admin error’. They duly extended the consultancy to late January. So what is being proposed? Three crossings, named as ‘Nature Reserve’ (Meadow Lane); Long Lane and Barratt Lane No.1 are being considered for closure. This would severely restrict access into the Nature Reserve by all means other than car, necessitating a 3 mile round-trip for most Beestonians used to the highly popular Meadow Lane crossing. Cycle paths, jogging routes, bridleways and nature trails would be blocked off. Bizarrely, the Nature Reserve was not informed of Network Rail’s plans, which is akin to someone nailing your back door shut without notice. Continued overpage