Trains are set to return to Leek
The Leek station and railway line to Stoke-on-Trent was in use until 1956 with passenger services to Uttoxeter until 1965
A final decision notice was issued last week by planners which gives full approval for the extension of the railway line from Leekbrook into the Barnfields area of the town.
The reinstatement of the railway track, along with a new platform and replacement footpath on the former railway line between Cornhill, Leek, Staffordshire and boundary of existing operational railway land at Leekbrook was given planning permission by Staffordshire Moorlands District Council’s planning applications committee last December.
Now planners have issued the final decision document with conditions for the development to go ahead by Churnet Valley Railway.
The former railway between North Rode and Uttoxeter and former Leek Station, which was located on the site now occupied by Morrisons, was opened by North Staffordshire Railway in 1849.
The branch line from Leekbrook junction, a short distance south of Leek, to Stoke-on-Trent was opened in 1864 and later a branch from Leekbrook junction to Cauldon Low was added in 1905.
The Leek station and railway line to Stoke-on-Trent was in use until 1956 with passenger services to Uttoxeter until 1965.
The line was finally closed following the closure of the freight services in the 1970s and the station and track between North Rode and Leekbrook dismantled shortly thereafter in 1973.
Now Churnet Valley Railway has been successful in its bid to the European Agricultural Fund for Rural Development (EAFRD) and has been awarded £1.4m to reinstate the whole length of the track on the Leekbrook to Leek rail line.
The decision notice, signed by Jane Curley on behalf of Staffordshire Moorlands District Council, said: “The proposed concessionary path between the proposed railway terminus and Waterworks Lane shown on the approved plans shall be provided in its entirety prior to the first operation of the railway for public passenger services in accordance with full constructional details which have first been submitted to and agreed in writing by the Local Planning Authority.
“The details shall include, widths, surfacing, details of any steps, gates, fences, stiles, drainage, gradient and levels details of the path. The path shall thereafter be retained and maintained unobstructed for the use of the general public at all times.
“Where the proposed path runs adjacent to the boundary of Leek Golf Club the 1.2 metre high wired pathway fencing as specified on the approved plans shall be upgraded to a 1.8 metre high green coloured barrier fence with a maximum mesh aperture of 42mm in accordance with details to be submitted to and approved in writing by the Local Planning Authority. The fencing shall be provided in accordance with the approved details prior to the first operation of the railway for public passenger services.
“No trees, shrubs or scrub vegetation shall be removed other than those whose removal is directly required to accommodate the approved development, including its proposed subsequent use as operational railway, unless otherwise approved by the Local Planning Authority. There shall be no removal of any trees, shrubs or hedgerows during the bird nesting season (nominally March to August inclusive), unless otherwise agreed by the Local Planning Authority and in this case only following careful inspection by a competent person to establish that such trees, shrubs or hedgerow are not in active use by nesting wild birds.
“Public passenger services shall not commence until there has been submitted to and approved in writing by the Local Planning Authority a landscaping plan for the northern section of the site covering the platform, water tower and footpath section, detailing planting and hard landscaping materials.
"All planting, seeding or turfing comprised in the approved details of landscaping shall be carried out in the first planting and seeding seasons following the occupation of the buildings or the completion of the development whichever is the sooner; and any trees or plants which within a period of five years from the completion of the landscaping scheme die, are removed or become seriously damaged or diseased shall be replaced in the next planting season with others of similar size and species unless the Local Planning Authority gives written consent to any variation.”
