Welcome to the
|
|
This is the website of the Railway Action Group (RAG), a group dedicated to the protection of the beautiful Goring Gap from the desecration of the landscape by Network Rail’s bulky, environmentally insensitive and one-size-fits-all electrification design. RAG is fully supportive of railway modernisation, it is simply the current over-engineered design we are seeking to improve.
For an illustrated summary of the campaign by RAG to protect the Goring Gap, watch the short video at the bottom of this page.
For an illustrated summary of the campaign by RAG to protect the Goring Gap, watch the short video at the bottom of this page.
Latest News
See 'News & Media page' for any further details on the headlines below:
Update on how Network Rail’s funding of £3.75m is being used to screen the rail corridor affected by electrification and also to enhance the sections of the two AONBs within the Goring Gap
Article posted 14th June 2021
Progress has been made this year since the ‘MEND the GAP’ programme has been set up and is working to identify suitable practical projects to both mitigate the adverse visual impact along the affected rail corridor and those to enhance the landscape and restore and increase the biodiversity of local fauna and flora.
The Railway Action Group is one of tripartite organisations, along with the two AONBs, which is managing the £3.75m fund. So, whilst RAG did not manage to achieve its primary aim of getting Network Rail to install more aesthetic and landscape sympathetic gantries through the Goring Gap, at least we are still playing a part to restore the Gap, and indeed to enhance it, with the money made available to the area.
You can see the extent of the Programme Area and read news updates on which projects have been selected online at www.MendtheGap.uk and also in Genie’s Village Matters free e-newsletters. (If you don’t already receive these you can subscribe on Genie’s website: www.genienews.org).
Article posted 14th June 2021
Progress has been made this year since the ‘MEND the GAP’ programme has been set up and is working to identify suitable practical projects to both mitigate the adverse visual impact along the affected rail corridor and those to enhance the landscape and restore and increase the biodiversity of local fauna and flora.
The Railway Action Group is one of tripartite organisations, along with the two AONBs, which is managing the £3.75m fund. So, whilst RAG did not manage to achieve its primary aim of getting Network Rail to install more aesthetic and landscape sympathetic gantries through the Goring Gap, at least we are still playing a part to restore the Gap, and indeed to enhance it, with the money made available to the area.
You can see the extent of the Programme Area and read news updates on which projects have been selected online at www.MendtheGap.uk and also in Genie’s Village Matters free e-newsletters. (If you don’t already receive these you can subscribe on Genie’s website: www.genienews.org).
Network Rail to fund £3.75m rail corridor planting & screening and enhancement programme to help restore landscape
The article below was amended on 21 August 2020
Network Rail has concluded a deal with the Chilterns Conservation Board and the North Wessex Downs to obviate their promises and stated intentions to change the electrification infrastructure on the Great Western Mainline that they made to mitigate the damage they have done to the AONBs.
Basically, as per the article on the CCB web-site, NR has agreed to fund a project with the Conservation Boards to 'restore natural beauty in this landscape and address the impact on local communities and the visitor economy' with £750k for planting and screening and £3mm for 'landscape enhancement projects'. As part of this agreement NR 'considers that it has discharged its statutory duty under section 85 of the Countryside Rights of Way Act 2000 through consultation with the Conservation Board for the Chilterns AONB and the North Wessex Downs AONB Partnership and through the assessment, investigation and consideration of the alternative options available to Network Rail in order to avoid adverse impacts of the electrification works.' Therefore, they do not intend to make any modifications to the gantries and OLE along this section of the line. In other conversations they have said that this is a result of the change in funding for NR ie Control Period 6, starting in April 2019, which means that any projects, beyond operations and maintenance, will now be funded by DfT on a discretionary basis (and that it is unlikely that any funding or projects such as ours from the current budget, CP5, would be recognised or considered) - and also that the project team has started to be disbanded such that there will be no one to work with on any remedial action by the end of the year.
They have also said that if this deal with the Conservation Boards had not been concluded there would be no money or remedial work in the future, which is the main reason the Conservation Boards agreed to it. It is not clear whether, by this agreement, they have fulfilled their statutory duties to the AONBs but it would require a legal challenge to find out - we have consulted our barrister with regards to these developments. Furthermore, it would seem unlikely through this course of action that they have fulfilled their requirements to consult properly at the start and throughout the project, but it would seem a waste of everyone’s time to make them hold public consultations on the results of Phase 3 of the Balfour Beatty work (results still outstanding) when they have no intention to act on them.
Recognising that the Railway Action Group has been instrumental in challenging NR on their dereliction of duty, the Conservation Board has offered a place on the Steering Group for the new project funded by this NR money - which would allow us to give some input to the planting and screening work - however, this does not take away the sense of disappointment about the outcome and the feeling of being misled by NR.
On the positive side as a result of our actions NR did make some changes to the infrastructure in the Cotswolds AONB, it is highly likely that they will take a much more sympathetic approach to electrification projects through AONBs in the future and it has provided some funds to conduct a small amount of mitigation work.
Thanks for everyone's support and contributions to the campaign and sorry that it's had such an unsatisfactory outcome.
RAG
Basically, as per the article on the CCB web-site, NR has agreed to fund a project with the Conservation Boards to 'restore natural beauty in this landscape and address the impact on local communities and the visitor economy' with £750k for planting and screening and £3mm for 'landscape enhancement projects'. As part of this agreement NR 'considers that it has discharged its statutory duty under section 85 of the Countryside Rights of Way Act 2000 through consultation with the Conservation Board for the Chilterns AONB and the North Wessex Downs AONB Partnership and through the assessment, investigation and consideration of the alternative options available to Network Rail in order to avoid adverse impacts of the electrification works.' Therefore, they do not intend to make any modifications to the gantries and OLE along this section of the line. In other conversations they have said that this is a result of the change in funding for NR ie Control Period 6, starting in April 2019, which means that any projects, beyond operations and maintenance, will now be funded by DfT on a discretionary basis (and that it is unlikely that any funding or projects such as ours from the current budget, CP5, would be recognised or considered) - and also that the project team has started to be disbanded such that there will be no one to work with on any remedial action by the end of the year.
They have also said that if this deal with the Conservation Boards had not been concluded there would be no money or remedial work in the future, which is the main reason the Conservation Boards agreed to it. It is not clear whether, by this agreement, they have fulfilled their statutory duties to the AONBs but it would require a legal challenge to find out - we have consulted our barrister with regards to these developments. Furthermore, it would seem unlikely through this course of action that they have fulfilled their requirements to consult properly at the start and throughout the project, but it would seem a waste of everyone’s time to make them hold public consultations on the results of Phase 3 of the Balfour Beatty work (results still outstanding) when they have no intention to act on them.
Recognising that the Railway Action Group has been instrumental in challenging NR on their dereliction of duty, the Conservation Board has offered a place on the Steering Group for the new project funded by this NR money - which would allow us to give some input to the planting and screening work - however, this does not take away the sense of disappointment about the outcome and the feeling of being misled by NR.
On the positive side as a result of our actions NR did make some changes to the infrastructure in the Cotswolds AONB, it is highly likely that they will take a much more sympathetic approach to electrification projects through AONBs in the future and it has provided some funds to conduct a small amount of mitigation work.
Thanks for everyone's support and contributions to the campaign and sorry that it's had such an unsatisfactory outcome.
RAG
Update 24 September 2018
Publication of Phase 2 Conclusions
Options to mitigate visual and environmental damage to the Chilterns and North Wessex AONBs caused by electrification works shown. Plans to take these forward into Phase 3, looking at practicality, viability and cost. Public consultation exercise to follow this now expected in Spring 2019.
On 24th September the Railway Action Group attended a meeting held in Reading to review the conclusions of Phase 2 of the work conducted into Options to Improve the Visual Amenity of the AONBs. This was hosted by Network Rail with other attendees from the Design Advisory Group, including members from the Chilterns Conservation Board, Cotswolds Conservation Board, North Wessex Downs AONB and Natural England. Also Bill Blackledge of 2B Landscape Consultancy was present and showed the latest work conducted on visual impact assessments of modelled improvements in particularly sensitive areas. Recommended options to progress to Phase 3 are as follows;
The Railway Action Group welcomes the progression into Phase 3 and the renewed commitment to a Public Consultation process, but is concerned that the portal options proposed for the next phase are still too restrictive and should include at least a light weight cantilever option as replacement structures. Furthermore we are concerned that funds have not been ring-fenced to enable the agreed changes to be made, and that these will need to be sought from the Department for Transport. Network Rail has a statutory duty to conserve and enhance the beauty of AONBs when operating in them, and this condition should not be compromised by poor planning and an inability to control costs elsewhere.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Update 20 October 2017
Further delays on promised public consultation
On 19 October at a meeting in Goring, chaired by John Howell MP, senior Network Rail (NR) managers told the Goring & South Stoke Railway Action Group (RAG) that they are delaying the local consultation meetings they had originally planned for earlier this year - the new proposed dates will not be before Spring 2018.
After a period of denial, Network Rail finally agreed in early 2016 that they had not consulted properly on the electrification of the Great Western Mainline and that they would consider retrofitting (ie replacing), the infrastructure they were putting in, with other versions that had less detrimental visual impact on the Areas of Outstanding Natural Beauty. They commissioned Balfour Beatty and a landscape visual impact consultancy to design new, less obtrusive metal work over the track within the Goring Gap area and to assess any visual improvement.
Design work was started with a plan to present the new gantry designs to local residents during a consultation process when they had the new options prepared. NR told RAG that a budget was set aside for possible retrofitting the selected new design(s) throughout the whole stretch of track which lies within the Chilterns and North Wessex Downs AONBs, some 20kms from Pangbourne to near Didcot. These consultations were advertised to be held at the beginning of this year at several localities in the area, however, the day before the first one in Goring was scheduled NR postponed all the meetings. This was after an independent design advisory group and RAG persuaded NR that their proposed designs were not significantly better than the existing ones and that more work and improved options were needed. NR concurred and said that once this further work was completed they would rearrange the meetings ‘in due course’. These meeting have never been rearranged but NR have finally said on 19 October that they are planning them for ‘Spring 2018, at the earliest’.
Several other issues were discussed, including other mitigation options such as structural changes to ‘declutter’ the gantries, screening them with planting and possibly tinting the metal work.
You can find the minutes of all previous meetings, including this latest one, on this website, together with the whole background to this electrification process and RAG's negotiations with NR to reduce the visual impact of the gantries since October 2015.
News of the dates of the public consultations will be advised on this website and via Genie newsletters and other media as soon as they are arranged.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Update 29 May 2017 - Still waiting for Network Rail's new dates.
Not much appears to have happened for 6 months since Network Rail (NR) deferred the public exhibitions in Goring and other villages (see previous update below, dated 18 January). In January, Network Rail (NR) was supposed to present its new electrification designs for the Goring Gap area and the whole AONB section of track between Purley and Didcot. We are awaiting the new dates for these exhibitions and consultation meetings.
The electrification of the Great Western Mainline continued last year with further installation of portal structures along the line. The section from Reading to Didcot (ie the Test Track) was completed and made live in July 2016, when testing of the new Hitachi Class 800 Intercity Express Trains began. Indefinite delays to some parts of the GWML were announced in Nov 2016 due to budget over-runs, including the section from Didcot to Oxford.
RAG held several meetings with NR throughout 2016 with a view to ensuring that NR maintained their stated intention to retrofit the section of the track through the AONBs with new designs (subject to itemised funds being approved).
Other actions included;
NR’s consultation events were due to be held in late January and February 2017. However, at a RAG/NR meeting held on 12th January 2017, DAG, together with RAG, told NR that the designs that they had chosen to present at the public events and the process to choose those designs were flawed and could not be supported by the two groups. DAG also stated that they had not been properly informed or consulted during the latter stages of the process. It was suggested that NR should revisit the report and the design options in order that further designs and more imaginative options were included (inc wire-headspans), there was a clearer indication of where the designs might be deployed (as part of a mixed design approach) and there was better integration with the visual impact work. NR subsequently postponed the Public Events at short notice stating that it would conduct the work suggested and would report back in a few months. As of 29 May 2017, we are still awaiting new dates for these public consultations.
The next meeting between NR and DAG is likely to be late June or July 2017. This may result in date being discussed for the consultation process to begin, or at least a progress report from NR as to the completion of the new electrification designs.
Although negotiations with NR appear to be progressing towards a better solution for the AONB section, there is still a significant risk that Network Rail is simply conducting this new design work and consultation exercise in order to fulfil their statutory duties with regards to AONB legislation, and that subsequently they will renege on implementing a retrofit project arguing that the overall project is too far over budget and that funding for retrofitting the AONB section is simply not available. RAG is fully aware of this and is capturing evidence, including NR statements to the media, minuted promises, statements of intent etc, in order that a there is the basis for legal action to be taken resulting in a judicial review should NR back-track on their promises. In the meantime, RAG is continuing to press NR for the consultation process to start and we will post further updates here as soon as new information is available.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
18 January 2017 - Network Rail announces postponement
of public meetings.
The text of the orange leaflet being mailed to the 6,000 or so residents previously invited to six public exhibitions (green leaflet) is below:
NOTICE:
Public Exhibitions Postponed
Network Rail has been working with an Advisory Group of Natural England
and AONB Conservation Boards to agree how we can manage the visual
impact of the new electrification overhead lines in the Chilterns and North
Wessex Downs Areas of Outstanding Natural Beauty.
We have jointly agreed to postpone the planned public drop in sessions
until later in the year to enable us to jointly undertake further work.
We will be re-advertising dates of public engagement events in due course.
We are sorry for any inconvenience caused by the postponement of the events.
For more information please:
Email: [email protected]
Visit: networkrail.co.uk/great-western-route-modernisation/oxfordshire
Call: 03457 11 41 41
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
13 January 2017 - Network Rail has postponed the series of six planned public consultation meetings and exhibitions arranged for January and February.
The latest meeting in Goring with senior Network Rail (NR) managers arranged by RAG on Thursday evening (12 January) was well attended by numerous parish councillors from many of the parishes in the Chilterns which are adversely affected by the unsightly gantries installed along the track from Reading to Didcot. Also present were representatives from the Chilterns AONB Planning Department and others, who took part in a detailed review of NR’s Phase 2 Report on the new electrifications designs for replacing the existing gantries (undertaken by Balfour Beatty on behalf of NR). Discussions also covered NR’s plans for the presentation of the new designs at the various public consultations in six villages, which were due to start on 21 January.
(See list of 6 villages at bottom).
Hours before the meeting, NR had received a letter from the Design Advisory Group (DAG), which includes planners and senior representatives from all the statutory bodies which protect the AONBs and the natural environment, stating that they were not satisfied with the Phase 2 report, the design options contained within it and the integration with the Visual Impact Study. RAG members were similarly unhappy with the number and quality of the shortlist of new electrification designs presented and suggested that NR should revisit the report and the design options before presenting them at the forthcoming public meetings. It was suggested by RAG that it was unfair to only show the shortlisted designs to the public as they did not represent the possible options that had been discarded unfairly. Also, more work was needed on any high-graded options to show where they might be deployed, given the fact that they were not suitable for all parts of the track.
NR agreed that it would consider further and more imaginative options, including reinstating a form of the wire headspan design, which is the least visually intrusive design of all, but which had been dropped from the shortlist. The meeting ended with the decision that NR would consider the possibility of deferring the public consultations until it had sufficient time to work up better designs or go ahead with the meetings anyway, bearing in mind that all the notifications to all the local residents affected had gone out, the venues booked and the newspaper adverts for the events had been placed. Notification from NR was received today (13 Jan) that it has deferred the meetings and will be sending new leaflets out informing residents of the new position. An extract of the letter is below for your information.
If you haven’t already signed up on this website to receive email updates (How to Help > Join our Mailing List) please consider this as you will then receive direct information of new developments and the dates of the rearranged public consultation meetings.
Extract from Network Rail email to RAG on 13 January 2017:
“… Further to our meeting yesterday evening, Network Rail has decided to postpone the consultation events planned to commence later this month, based on the recommendations contained in the Advisory Group email of 12th January together with the sentiments expressed at last nights’ meeting with yourselves.
In the light of this, Network Rail will continue working with the Advisory Group, including the issue of the use of Headspans which have been raised.
We recognise the value of drawing together fully the output from the Landscape & Visual Appraisal (LVA) with the Balfour Beatty's Phase 2 Report. We will arrange the next Advisory Group meeting shortly with Natural England and the Conservation Board Officers.
Once we have clarified the full scope of the additional work to be done with the Advisory Group, we will put together a revised timetable for the consultation process and share this with you.
We are in the process of arranging for notices to be sent to all people on the original mailing list to inform them of the deferral of the public events.“
Best Wishes
Matthew Thompson | Communications Manager | Network Rail.
The planned public consultation meetings, now deferred, were to be held at:
Goring (21 January), Cholsey (24 January), South Stoke (25 January), Pangbourne (27 January), Moulsford (1 February) & Basildon (7 February).
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
12 December 2016 - Network Rail’s Public Consultation
Coming in January/February - Have your say!
For the past few months, Network Rail has been undertaking work on the new electrification designs and on the visual impact that these might have on the two relevant Areas of Outstanding Natural Beauty.
RAG has seen the eleven gantry designs that Balfour Beatty has producing for Network Rail and is considering a shortlist of three or four for the potential retrofit. After detailed engineering analysis and cost evaluation, Network Rail plans to put the shortlisted options before the general public in January 2017 onwards at ‘drop-in meetings’ in a number of village halls in affected communities as part of its (very late) consultation process.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
30 August 2016 - Network Rail reveals new infrastructure designs for AONB 'retrofit'
Since RAG’s negotiations with Network Rail began to improve the current electrification design in the AONBs, NR’s stance has moved steadily from a position at our first meeting on 6 May 2015 of a firm ‘no compromise’ policy on the re-design of the infrastructure to the presentation by NR on 14 July of a shortlist of 10 new potential design options. So, it appears, some significant progress.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
10 May 2016 - More details from Network Rail about retrofit
At the latest RAG meeting (the 5th) on 5 May with Network Rail (NR) in Goring, detailed information was sought by the Railway Action Group (RAG) and other attendees, about Network Rail’s (NR) plans on the potential removal of the existing ugly gantries and the retrofitting of a new, more aesthetic, design. NR have now commissioned new designs and the public will be able to view and comment on these at forthcoming public consultation process in late summer.
See 'News' page for full report of the meeting and latest developments.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
9 March 2016 - Some positive news
Network Rail has written to the Railway Action Group (9 March 2016) confirming its commitment to retrofitting a suitable new design of electrification gantries throughout the whole AONB section of line (some 20kms from near Pangbourne to near Didcot) and that it has made financial provisions in its overall budget for this potential work.
NR’s CEO, Mark Carne, is to give his high level endorsement of this in a letter to the AONB Conservation Boards (to be placed on this website shortly). In addition, NR has also published the ‘Statement of Intent’ that RAG received in October 2015 on their website, along with a revised statement of the plans for the Goring Gap section of the line: http://www.networkrail.co.uk/great-western-route-modernisation/oxfordshire/
RAG has also received confirmation in writing that "Network Rail has made financial provision for potential retrofit works within the overall £2.8bn budget for electrification between Maidenhead and Cardiff."
At a meeting on 11 March, Network Rail discussed with representatives from The Chilterns AONB, North Wessex Downs AONB, Natural England and an environmental consultancy (2B Landscape Consultancy Ltd), its progress in developing new electrification designs for the Goring Gap/AONB area. Network Rail has appointed Balfour Beatty to undertake the review of options for less visually impactful designs which can be retro-fitted in the AONB area. This review will include a Landscape Visual Impact Assessment (LVIA) which will be undertaken by 2B Landscape Consultancy Ltd. Balfour Beatty will also undertake all the technical feasibility work required to ensure the new designs meet all the exacting specifications required to comply with Networks Rail’s safety and interoperability standards. At some point (tba), Balfour Beatty will produce a report, with recommendations, which will then go the Department for Transport for its ‘approvals process’.
The outline schedule RAG has been given for the full Public Consultation is summer 2016, when the proposed designs will be on show at the various local venues (tba).
NR is continuing to install the current design between Reading and Didcot, but this work should be complete by September 2016, ready for the testing programme of the new Hitachi electric trains soon after. Once testing has been completed (timetable unknown), RAG understands that this test track area will be potentially retrofitted with a new, lower visual impact design at some point afterwards, assuming a design is acceptable to RAG and the AONBs.
RAG is continuing to challenge the way that Network Rail has carried out, or rather not carried out, ‘due process’ in getting approvals and planning permissions for the electrification programme in this AONB area. RAG has instructed a leading environmental and public law firm to send a second letter to NR arguing that its approval process for its ‘Permitted Development Rights' is fundamentally flawed.
At the next RAG/NR meeting in Goring (planned for April), RAG is hoping to see real signs of progress with the alternate designs that NR/Balfour Beatty are working on and a timetable for the consultation process this summer.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
BBC NEWS, 15 January 2016 - 'Network Rail apologies for Goring Gap gantries'.
Network Rail has apologised for building large new gantries in an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty without consulting nearby residents
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-berkshire-35321340
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
House of Commons, 14 January 2016 - The Goring Gap/Network Rail issue was discussed in parliament by John Howell MP and Chris Grayling MP (Leader of the House of Commons and Lord President of the Council). See Hansard report on 'News & Media' page
________________________________________________________________________________________
As the photographs at the top of this page so clearly show, the once virtually unnoticed railway track is being transformed into a devastatingly ugly metal-arched corridor, snaking through the countryside. All this heavy metalwork is to support the overhead electric wires needed to power the new electric trains which Network Rail claim will bring us so much environmental benefit, an important raison d'etre, it claims, for modernising the railway.
It is widely acknowledged that this new infrastructure design is the worst, most visually intrusive and aesthetically unattractive of any existing designs in the UK and possibly the world. Network Rail is imposing this new design along the whole of the Great Western main Line (London to Wales) without any prior consultation, mitigation or consideration for the damage it is clearly doing to the Areas of Outstanding Natural Beauty is passes through, such as the two within the Goring Gap. It is ironic that whilst this most sensitive and legally protected landscape has the worst system installed, the unprotected areas in West London has a relatively visually acceptable design. This is illustrated by the photograph below of Hanwell station, part of Network Rail’s Heathrow to Paddington Express line, which has successfully and reliably been running high speed electric trains for many years. Network Rail has no plans to change this wire headspan system, which clearly doesn’t require the heavy metal horizontal headspans of the new system.
RAG believes Network Rail has broken the law by not complying with Section 85 of the Countryside and Rights of Way Act 2000, and possibly breached other laws too. RAG has legally challenged Network Rail to rebut our allegations. Since the formation of RAG in March 2015, we have achieved recognition by Network Rail that is has failed in its duty to consult properly and engage with conservation and other authorities. It has now agreed to a full consultation process, starting in early 2016. For the consultation, Network Rail has also been eventually persuaded to develop and present new, alternative engineering designs for the AONBs within the Goring Gap. A written ‘Statement of Intent’ from Network Rail includes the heavily caveated wording “… Network Rail should undertake retrospective works to alter or replace the installed apparatus, Network Rail intends to undertake such works as are necessary subject to costs and the agreement of our funders.” RAG and the heads of the AONBs are now working to remove the all-important caveat and has written to the Secretary of State for Transport in December 2015 insisting that cast iron guarantees are given that the existing system will be replaced and that a ring-fenced budget and a timetable is identified for this specific purpose.
Our campaign to minimise the harmful visual impact on our most beautiful countryside is an uphill struggle, but is now making progress. To be ultimately successful, however, we need further support and costly legal intervention to ensure Network Rail keeps true to its undertakings. If you feel you would like to support this campaign to protect our Areas of Outstanding Natural Beauty and contribute to our Fighting Fund, please go to the ‘How to Help’ page where you can make a donation. Thank you.
Publication of Phase 2 Conclusions
Options to mitigate visual and environmental damage to the Chilterns and North Wessex AONBs caused by electrification works shown. Plans to take these forward into Phase 3, looking at practicality, viability and cost. Public consultation exercise to follow this now expected in Spring 2019.
On 24th September the Railway Action Group attended a meeting held in Reading to review the conclusions of Phase 2 of the work conducted into Options to Improve the Visual Amenity of the AONBs. This was hosted by Network Rail with other attendees from the Design Advisory Group, including members from the Chilterns Conservation Board, Cotswolds Conservation Board, North Wessex Downs AONB and Natural England. Also Bill Blackledge of 2B Landscape Consultancy was present and showed the latest work conducted on visual impact assessments of modelled improvements in particularly sensitive areas. Recommended options to progress to Phase 3 are as follows;
- Series 1 Amended:
- Solid beam modification
- ATF options (all assume cropping masts to boom level)
- Vertical insulators
- Low-Level ATF
- Ground-level ATF
- Viaduct Portal as replacement for standard portal
- Viaduct Twin T as replacement for standard portal (review possible locations)
- Landscape-based Mitigations
- Colour (painting)
- Fencing
- Offsetting (Biodiversity/Landscape/Visual)
The Railway Action Group welcomes the progression into Phase 3 and the renewed commitment to a Public Consultation process, but is concerned that the portal options proposed for the next phase are still too restrictive and should include at least a light weight cantilever option as replacement structures. Furthermore we are concerned that funds have not been ring-fenced to enable the agreed changes to be made, and that these will need to be sought from the Department for Transport. Network Rail has a statutory duty to conserve and enhance the beauty of AONBs when operating in them, and this condition should not be compromised by poor planning and an inability to control costs elsewhere.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Update 20 October 2017
Further delays on promised public consultation
On 19 October at a meeting in Goring, chaired by John Howell MP, senior Network Rail (NR) managers told the Goring & South Stoke Railway Action Group (RAG) that they are delaying the local consultation meetings they had originally planned for earlier this year - the new proposed dates will not be before Spring 2018.
After a period of denial, Network Rail finally agreed in early 2016 that they had not consulted properly on the electrification of the Great Western Mainline and that they would consider retrofitting (ie replacing), the infrastructure they were putting in, with other versions that had less detrimental visual impact on the Areas of Outstanding Natural Beauty. They commissioned Balfour Beatty and a landscape visual impact consultancy to design new, less obtrusive metal work over the track within the Goring Gap area and to assess any visual improvement.
Design work was started with a plan to present the new gantry designs to local residents during a consultation process when they had the new options prepared. NR told RAG that a budget was set aside for possible retrofitting the selected new design(s) throughout the whole stretch of track which lies within the Chilterns and North Wessex Downs AONBs, some 20kms from Pangbourne to near Didcot. These consultations were advertised to be held at the beginning of this year at several localities in the area, however, the day before the first one in Goring was scheduled NR postponed all the meetings. This was after an independent design advisory group and RAG persuaded NR that their proposed designs were not significantly better than the existing ones and that more work and improved options were needed. NR concurred and said that once this further work was completed they would rearrange the meetings ‘in due course’. These meeting have never been rearranged but NR have finally said on 19 October that they are planning them for ‘Spring 2018, at the earliest’.
Several other issues were discussed, including other mitigation options such as structural changes to ‘declutter’ the gantries, screening them with planting and possibly tinting the metal work.
You can find the minutes of all previous meetings, including this latest one, on this website, together with the whole background to this electrification process and RAG's negotiations with NR to reduce the visual impact of the gantries since October 2015.
News of the dates of the public consultations will be advised on this website and via Genie newsletters and other media as soon as they are arranged.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Update 29 May 2017 - Still waiting for Network Rail's new dates.
Not much appears to have happened for 6 months since Network Rail (NR) deferred the public exhibitions in Goring and other villages (see previous update below, dated 18 January). In January, Network Rail (NR) was supposed to present its new electrification designs for the Goring Gap area and the whole AONB section of track between Purley and Didcot. We are awaiting the new dates for these exhibitions and consultation meetings.
The electrification of the Great Western Mainline continued last year with further installation of portal structures along the line. The section from Reading to Didcot (ie the Test Track) was completed and made live in July 2016, when testing of the new Hitachi Class 800 Intercity Express Trains began. Indefinite delays to some parts of the GWML were announced in Nov 2016 due to budget over-runs, including the section from Didcot to Oxford.
RAG held several meetings with NR throughout 2016 with a view to ensuring that NR maintained their stated intention to retrofit the section of the track through the AONBs with new designs (subject to itemised funds being approved).
Other actions included;
- the sending of several legal letters to NR challenging their Permitted Development Rights and their adherence to the laws protecting AONBs
- a review of NR’s Balfour Beatty contracted new designs report and the LVIA work that was conducted in parallel – this resulted in the original 80 or so designs first considered being reduced to 10 in August 2016 and then 4 in January 2017
- the engagement of several other Parish Councils along the AONB section and their attendance at key meetings
- having two questions asked in the Houses of Parliament by local MPs regarding the visual impact of the electrification work on the landscape
- the continued engagement with the Design Advisory Group (DAG), which includes the Chilterns Conservation Board, the North Wessex Downs Conservation Board, Natural England and SODC
- maintaining and updating the RAG web-site and Facebook page
- supporting NR in a plan to hold Public Event meetings in several parishes to show their new designs as part of the belated Consultation Plan
NR’s consultation events were due to be held in late January and February 2017. However, at a RAG/NR meeting held on 12th January 2017, DAG, together with RAG, told NR that the designs that they had chosen to present at the public events and the process to choose those designs were flawed and could not be supported by the two groups. DAG also stated that they had not been properly informed or consulted during the latter stages of the process. It was suggested that NR should revisit the report and the design options in order that further designs and more imaginative options were included (inc wire-headspans), there was a clearer indication of where the designs might be deployed (as part of a mixed design approach) and there was better integration with the visual impact work. NR subsequently postponed the Public Events at short notice stating that it would conduct the work suggested and would report back in a few months. As of 29 May 2017, we are still awaiting new dates for these public consultations.
The next meeting between NR and DAG is likely to be late June or July 2017. This may result in date being discussed for the consultation process to begin, or at least a progress report from NR as to the completion of the new electrification designs.
Although negotiations with NR appear to be progressing towards a better solution for the AONB section, there is still a significant risk that Network Rail is simply conducting this new design work and consultation exercise in order to fulfil their statutory duties with regards to AONB legislation, and that subsequently they will renege on implementing a retrofit project arguing that the overall project is too far over budget and that funding for retrofitting the AONB section is simply not available. RAG is fully aware of this and is capturing evidence, including NR statements to the media, minuted promises, statements of intent etc, in order that a there is the basis for legal action to be taken resulting in a judicial review should NR back-track on their promises. In the meantime, RAG is continuing to press NR for the consultation process to start and we will post further updates here as soon as new information is available.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
18 January 2017 - Network Rail announces postponement
of public meetings.
The text of the orange leaflet being mailed to the 6,000 or so residents previously invited to six public exhibitions (green leaflet) is below:
NOTICE:
Public Exhibitions Postponed
Network Rail has been working with an Advisory Group of Natural England
and AONB Conservation Boards to agree how we can manage the visual
impact of the new electrification overhead lines in the Chilterns and North
Wessex Downs Areas of Outstanding Natural Beauty.
We have jointly agreed to postpone the planned public drop in sessions
until later in the year to enable us to jointly undertake further work.
We will be re-advertising dates of public engagement events in due course.
We are sorry for any inconvenience caused by the postponement of the events.
For more information please:
Email: [email protected]
Visit: networkrail.co.uk/great-western-route-modernisation/oxfordshire
Call: 03457 11 41 41
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
13 January 2017 - Network Rail has postponed the series of six planned public consultation meetings and exhibitions arranged for January and February.
The latest meeting in Goring with senior Network Rail (NR) managers arranged by RAG on Thursday evening (12 January) was well attended by numerous parish councillors from many of the parishes in the Chilterns which are adversely affected by the unsightly gantries installed along the track from Reading to Didcot. Also present were representatives from the Chilterns AONB Planning Department and others, who took part in a detailed review of NR’s Phase 2 Report on the new electrifications designs for replacing the existing gantries (undertaken by Balfour Beatty on behalf of NR). Discussions also covered NR’s plans for the presentation of the new designs at the various public consultations in six villages, which were due to start on 21 January.
(See list of 6 villages at bottom).
Hours before the meeting, NR had received a letter from the Design Advisory Group (DAG), which includes planners and senior representatives from all the statutory bodies which protect the AONBs and the natural environment, stating that they were not satisfied with the Phase 2 report, the design options contained within it and the integration with the Visual Impact Study. RAG members were similarly unhappy with the number and quality of the shortlist of new electrification designs presented and suggested that NR should revisit the report and the design options before presenting them at the forthcoming public meetings. It was suggested by RAG that it was unfair to only show the shortlisted designs to the public as they did not represent the possible options that had been discarded unfairly. Also, more work was needed on any high-graded options to show where they might be deployed, given the fact that they were not suitable for all parts of the track.
NR agreed that it would consider further and more imaginative options, including reinstating a form of the wire headspan design, which is the least visually intrusive design of all, but which had been dropped from the shortlist. The meeting ended with the decision that NR would consider the possibility of deferring the public consultations until it had sufficient time to work up better designs or go ahead with the meetings anyway, bearing in mind that all the notifications to all the local residents affected had gone out, the venues booked and the newspaper adverts for the events had been placed. Notification from NR was received today (13 Jan) that it has deferred the meetings and will be sending new leaflets out informing residents of the new position. An extract of the letter is below for your information.
If you haven’t already signed up on this website to receive email updates (How to Help > Join our Mailing List) please consider this as you will then receive direct information of new developments and the dates of the rearranged public consultation meetings.
Extract from Network Rail email to RAG on 13 January 2017:
“… Further to our meeting yesterday evening, Network Rail has decided to postpone the consultation events planned to commence later this month, based on the recommendations contained in the Advisory Group email of 12th January together with the sentiments expressed at last nights’ meeting with yourselves.
In the light of this, Network Rail will continue working with the Advisory Group, including the issue of the use of Headspans which have been raised.
We recognise the value of drawing together fully the output from the Landscape & Visual Appraisal (LVA) with the Balfour Beatty's Phase 2 Report. We will arrange the next Advisory Group meeting shortly with Natural England and the Conservation Board Officers.
Once we have clarified the full scope of the additional work to be done with the Advisory Group, we will put together a revised timetable for the consultation process and share this with you.
We are in the process of arranging for notices to be sent to all people on the original mailing list to inform them of the deferral of the public events.“
Best Wishes
Matthew Thompson | Communications Manager | Network Rail.
The planned public consultation meetings, now deferred, were to be held at:
Goring (21 January), Cholsey (24 January), South Stoke (25 January), Pangbourne (27 January), Moulsford (1 February) & Basildon (7 February).
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
12 December 2016 - Network Rail’s Public Consultation
Coming in January/February - Have your say!
For the past few months, Network Rail has been undertaking work on the new electrification designs and on the visual impact that these might have on the two relevant Areas of Outstanding Natural Beauty.
RAG has seen the eleven gantry designs that Balfour Beatty has producing for Network Rail and is considering a shortlist of three or four for the potential retrofit. After detailed engineering analysis and cost evaluation, Network Rail plans to put the shortlisted options before the general public in January 2017 onwards at ‘drop-in meetings’ in a number of village halls in affected communities as part of its (very late) consultation process.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
30 August 2016 - Network Rail reveals new infrastructure designs for AONB 'retrofit'
Since RAG’s negotiations with Network Rail began to improve the current electrification design in the AONBs, NR’s stance has moved steadily from a position at our first meeting on 6 May 2015 of a firm ‘no compromise’ policy on the re-design of the infrastructure to the presentation by NR on 14 July of a shortlist of 10 new potential design options. So, it appears, some significant progress.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
10 May 2016 - More details from Network Rail about retrofit
At the latest RAG meeting (the 5th) on 5 May with Network Rail (NR) in Goring, detailed information was sought by the Railway Action Group (RAG) and other attendees, about Network Rail’s (NR) plans on the potential removal of the existing ugly gantries and the retrofitting of a new, more aesthetic, design. NR have now commissioned new designs and the public will be able to view and comment on these at forthcoming public consultation process in late summer.
See 'News' page for full report of the meeting and latest developments.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
9 March 2016 - Some positive news
Network Rail has written to the Railway Action Group (9 March 2016) confirming its commitment to retrofitting a suitable new design of electrification gantries throughout the whole AONB section of line (some 20kms from near Pangbourne to near Didcot) and that it has made financial provisions in its overall budget for this potential work.
NR’s CEO, Mark Carne, is to give his high level endorsement of this in a letter to the AONB Conservation Boards (to be placed on this website shortly). In addition, NR has also published the ‘Statement of Intent’ that RAG received in October 2015 on their website, along with a revised statement of the plans for the Goring Gap section of the line: http://www.networkrail.co.uk/great-western-route-modernisation/oxfordshire/
RAG has also received confirmation in writing that "Network Rail has made financial provision for potential retrofit works within the overall £2.8bn budget for electrification between Maidenhead and Cardiff."
At a meeting on 11 March, Network Rail discussed with representatives from The Chilterns AONB, North Wessex Downs AONB, Natural England and an environmental consultancy (2B Landscape Consultancy Ltd), its progress in developing new electrification designs for the Goring Gap/AONB area. Network Rail has appointed Balfour Beatty to undertake the review of options for less visually impactful designs which can be retro-fitted in the AONB area. This review will include a Landscape Visual Impact Assessment (LVIA) which will be undertaken by 2B Landscape Consultancy Ltd. Balfour Beatty will also undertake all the technical feasibility work required to ensure the new designs meet all the exacting specifications required to comply with Networks Rail’s safety and interoperability standards. At some point (tba), Balfour Beatty will produce a report, with recommendations, which will then go the Department for Transport for its ‘approvals process’.
The outline schedule RAG has been given for the full Public Consultation is summer 2016, when the proposed designs will be on show at the various local venues (tba).
NR is continuing to install the current design between Reading and Didcot, but this work should be complete by September 2016, ready for the testing programme of the new Hitachi electric trains soon after. Once testing has been completed (timetable unknown), RAG understands that this test track area will be potentially retrofitted with a new, lower visual impact design at some point afterwards, assuming a design is acceptable to RAG and the AONBs.
RAG is continuing to challenge the way that Network Rail has carried out, or rather not carried out, ‘due process’ in getting approvals and planning permissions for the electrification programme in this AONB area. RAG has instructed a leading environmental and public law firm to send a second letter to NR arguing that its approval process for its ‘Permitted Development Rights' is fundamentally flawed.
At the next RAG/NR meeting in Goring (planned for April), RAG is hoping to see real signs of progress with the alternate designs that NR/Balfour Beatty are working on and a timetable for the consultation process this summer.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
BBC NEWS, 15 January 2016 - 'Network Rail apologies for Goring Gap gantries'.
Network Rail has apologised for building large new gantries in an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty without consulting nearby residents
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-berkshire-35321340
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
House of Commons, 14 January 2016 - The Goring Gap/Network Rail issue was discussed in parliament by John Howell MP and Chris Grayling MP (Leader of the House of Commons and Lord President of the Council). See Hansard report on 'News & Media' page
________________________________________________________________________________________
As the photographs at the top of this page so clearly show, the once virtually unnoticed railway track is being transformed into a devastatingly ugly metal-arched corridor, snaking through the countryside. All this heavy metalwork is to support the overhead electric wires needed to power the new electric trains which Network Rail claim will bring us so much environmental benefit, an important raison d'etre, it claims, for modernising the railway.
It is widely acknowledged that this new infrastructure design is the worst, most visually intrusive and aesthetically unattractive of any existing designs in the UK and possibly the world. Network Rail is imposing this new design along the whole of the Great Western main Line (London to Wales) without any prior consultation, mitigation or consideration for the damage it is clearly doing to the Areas of Outstanding Natural Beauty is passes through, such as the two within the Goring Gap. It is ironic that whilst this most sensitive and legally protected landscape has the worst system installed, the unprotected areas in West London has a relatively visually acceptable design. This is illustrated by the photograph below of Hanwell station, part of Network Rail’s Heathrow to Paddington Express line, which has successfully and reliably been running high speed electric trains for many years. Network Rail has no plans to change this wire headspan system, which clearly doesn’t require the heavy metal horizontal headspans of the new system.
RAG believes Network Rail has broken the law by not complying with Section 85 of the Countryside and Rights of Way Act 2000, and possibly breached other laws too. RAG has legally challenged Network Rail to rebut our allegations. Since the formation of RAG in March 2015, we have achieved recognition by Network Rail that is has failed in its duty to consult properly and engage with conservation and other authorities. It has now agreed to a full consultation process, starting in early 2016. For the consultation, Network Rail has also been eventually persuaded to develop and present new, alternative engineering designs for the AONBs within the Goring Gap. A written ‘Statement of Intent’ from Network Rail includes the heavily caveated wording “… Network Rail should undertake retrospective works to alter or replace the installed apparatus, Network Rail intends to undertake such works as are necessary subject to costs and the agreement of our funders.” RAG and the heads of the AONBs are now working to remove the all-important caveat and has written to the Secretary of State for Transport in December 2015 insisting that cast iron guarantees are given that the existing system will be replaced and that a ring-fenced budget and a timetable is identified for this specific purpose.
Our campaign to minimise the harmful visual impact on our most beautiful countryside is an uphill struggle, but is now making progress. To be ultimately successful, however, we need further support and costly legal intervention to ensure Network Rail keeps true to its undertakings. If you feel you would like to support this campaign to protect our Areas of Outstanding Natural Beauty and contribute to our Fighting Fund, please go to the ‘How to Help’ page where you can make a donation. Thank you.
Viewing the Video film (made September 2015): The film plays by default in High Definition (the HD button shows blue in the bottom control bar to the left of the 'Full Screen' button). In locations with a very slow internet connection you may want to switch off 'HD' and watch in Standard Definition. To do this, click the HD button and it will show grey. NB: If the film still stops/starts, wait for a while until it is fully downloaded and then go back to the start again.
