MPs demand clarity over future of Wellington and Cullompton stations

Chancellor of the exchequer Rachel Reeves MP announced in the House of Commons on July 29 that she would be scrapping the restoring your railway fund as part of a wider scheme of measures to tackle a projected £22bn overspend the new Labour government had inherited from the Conservatives.

The £500m fund, which was launched under Boris Johnson’s premiership in February 2020, intended to develop and fund proposals to reopen railway stations in areas which had lost direct rail services under the Beeching cuts of the mid-1960s – including Wellington and Cullompton, just over the border in Devon.

Ms Reeves provided reassurance to newly-elected Taunton and Wellington MP Gideon Amos that the £15m station planned for Wellington would proceed, as would other projects which had already started.

But Mr Amos and Richard Foord – the MP for Honiton and Sidmouth – have now demanded urgent clarity on the situation after the Department for Transport (DfT) failed to provide the same assurance.

Gideon Amos, the MP for Taunton and Wellington. (Image: Taunton and Wellington Liberal Democrats.)

Just one day after Mrs Reeves’ reassurance, Messrs. Amos and Foord received a letter from Peter Hendy, Baron Hendy of Richmond, a former chairman of Network Rail who was recently appointed rail minister.

Mr Hendy did not commit to reopening these stations, offering only a vague commitment to “attempt to consider” the Wellington and Cullompton project, as part of the wider review of government-backed transport initiatives.

The two Liberal Democrat MPs penned a joint letter to Mr Hendy on Monday (August 5), restating the case for the new stations in light of planned housing growth and urging the DfT to make its position clear.

They said: “Both stations will be key to unlocking thousands of new homes.

“The Wellington Place Plan (which was adopted in March 2023) identified land for thousands of new homes linked to Wellington railway station, over and above the allocation in the adopted Local Plan.

“Furthermore, in Cullompton, the station would help to progress the construction of up to 5,000 proposed homes as part of the so-called Culm Garden Village.

“We recognise the strain on the government’s finances caused by years of unfunded commitments by the previous government.

“Fortunately, this project has the backing of both Somerset Council and Mid Devon District Council – which [with their predecessors in Somerset] have, to date, contributed towards the £6.2m spent on its development.

“However, your letter of July 30 does not give the assurance that the chancellor gave in her recent statement on the project.”

Richard Foord after a night on patrol with police officers in Honiton. (Image: Richard Foord)

Messrs. Amos and Foord said that a commitment was urgently needed from the government to provide the £1.6m of funding needed to complete the detailed design work for each of the new stations (working out at around £800,000 per station).

Around 75 per cent of the detailed design work has already been completed, with the respective local authorities looking to “capture increases in land value as contributory funding” to ensure both stations could move forward.

Mr Amos said: “I’ve supported this project ever since it was suggested by Jeremy Browne in Parliament in 2014, and since my Lib Dem councillor colleagues kick-started its funding in 2019.

“Together Somerset and Devon have put up more than £6m of the funding. To delay now would be totally the wrong decision.

“I’m going to keep pushing as hard as possible for our station until the chancellor’s own commitment is honoured and the station gets built.”

If the project does move forward, the new Wellington station will be built on land north of the town’s Lidl supermarket, with access being delivered as part of a development of 200 homes which was approved by Somerset Council’s planning committee west in early-May.

Network Rail (which is leading the project) is expected to publish formal plans for the £15m station later in the summer, with the first trains expected to call into the new station by June 2026.

Retired strategic planner David Northey. (Image: Daniel Mumby)

David Northey, a retired strategic planner with Network Rail, stated in early-July that the new station would only have basic facilities to keep the delivery cost down – with any additional elements, such as a waiting room or café, having to be delivered by the local community.

Mr Foord added: “Having spent over two years pressing the last government to honour its commitments and re-open Cullompton station, I’ve seen the hard work and dedication that has gone into helping get things off the ground.

“Yet now we find out that, despite direct promises from the chancellor in the House of Commons, the DfT maybe seeking to quietly side-line the project.

“The re-opening of stations at Cullompton and Wellington are vital to ensuring our railways serve the needs of our communities.

“People have had enough of hollow promises. The chancellor must honour her word and press the DfT to release the funding for the re-opening of these vital commuter stations.”

Both of the new stations will be served as part of the existing hourly service between Cardiff Central and Exeter St. David’s run by Great Western Railway (GWR) – which will be nationalised before the end of the current parliament as part of the government’s wider transport plans.