There are “no firm plans” to reopen a Somerset railway station – and the cost of taking the first step towards this could be up to £60,000.

Chard Junction railway station served the villages south of Chard for more than 100 years before it was closed in March 1966 as part of the infamous Beeching cuts.

Local residents and campaigners have been pushing for the station to be reopened, arguing it will reduce road traffic to the nearby towns of Axminster and Crewkerne and provide the area with better links to Exeter and the wider south west.

But Somerset County Council has said that there are currently no firm proposals to reopen the station on the table and that it has no means of funding an initial study into any new station on the old site.

Local resident Ian Beckey questioned the amount of progress being made on the project when the full council met in Taunton on Wednesday morning (July 20).

He said: “What progress is being made on reopening Chard Junction railway station?

“Since Chard is a fast-growing town and in need of both good bus, coach and train links to London and the south west region.”

The former station lies on the mainline between London Waterloo and Exeter St. David’s, a short distance from the village of Tatworth and metres from the Dorset border.

The station used to provide a direct link to Chard via a branch line, but this was also scaled back and closed in the mid-1960s, with Chard Central railway station being turned into retail outlets and much of the trackbed on to Ilminster now forming the Stop Line Way cycle route.

Chard will see significant housing growth in the coming years, with the town expanding to the south and east as more applications within the Chard Eastern Development Area (CEDA) come forward.

The Snowdon Grange development of 200 homes is currently being constructed on the A358 Tatworth Road, with two other major developments being planned for the sites immediately to the south.

Councillor Mike Rigby said the council supported the reopening of Chard Junction in principle but had not allocated any funding in its budget for initial feasibility work.

Councillor Connor Payne, whose Chard South division includes the former station site, made reopening the station a central plank of his campaign in the May local elections.

He petitioned Tatworth and Forton Parish Council to support the reopening of the station on July 7 but the council voted against the motion.

Posting on social media after the meeting, Mr Payne said: “Over 900 people voted for me, knowing that a train station was my number one priority when elected.

“There is money in a government pot waiting to be used. That money won’t be reallocated. If it’s there, we need to use it, or someone elsewhere will get it.

“I have planned for traffic increases on Station Road, and as a county councillor, I get a small improvement scheme, which I am looking to use in that area to slow traffic for when a train station is put there, to mitigate speeding.

“In the long term, it’s crazy to think this won’t help the environment.”