Residual Railway Land at Rye
At the recent meeting of the Marshlink Partnership it was revealed that a sections of Railway land on both sides of the line between the Tillingham and the Ferry Road Crossing are being considered for railway or integrated transport uses.
Councillor Granville Bantick, a committee member on Marshlink, suggested that this land should form part of the circular cycle route around Rye, a proposal which Councillor Sonia Holmes has already mooted.
These sections of land, as well as the ground north of the line between the Ferry Road Crossing and Thomas Peacocke Community College, are overgrown and strewn with litter and rubbish. To use both sections as a cycle road would clean the areas up and link the existing Winchelsea Road – Cadborough Cliff cycle path and make a good start to a cycle path that would eventually circumnavigate the town.
Councillor Bantick raised the point again at the Public Services Committee Meeting at the Town Hall on Monday 17 October.
At this same meeting East Sussex County Councillor Kieth Glazier revealed that the parcel of ground between the railway lines and the Ferry Road School site had been parcelled together with the school site in a joint deal between East Sussex County Council, The Railway Residual Land agents and a National Provider. The National Provider is no doubt the company who holds the option on these two parcels of land.
Another railway issue touched on at this meeting was the disastrous decision by Eurostar to reduce services to Ashford International and make Ebbsfleet (north Kent) the principle station for the Paris / Brussels Eurostar operation. There was much discussion on the implications to the Rye tourism industry and the worry that the Primrose Line would carry far fewer passengers, perhaps even tailing off to such a point that the Ashford – Rye – Hastings railway would again be in danger of closure.
A letter from Rye Council will be forwarded to Eurostar voicing the town’s concern.
“Rye’s Own” April 2004
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