The Bala Lake Railway are celebrating after overcoming a major planning hurdle relating to the proposed extension of the narrow gauge service.
Earlier this year, permission to extend the railway into the town itself was refused. The decision, taken in April, was based on the assumption that an increase in visitors to Bala would overload the town’s water treatment works, meaning that an increased amount of phosphate would be released into the River Dee.
A new phosphate permit was granted to the treatment works in July. This determined the phosphate limit allowed for the town.
Recently, Welsh Water/Dwr Cymru confirmed that the asset management plan, which is due to complete in 2025, will take in to account the additional phosphate loading from the proposed scheme and still meet the limit.
That, however, is not the end of the story. There are other reasons which were cited in the refusal and railway’s management is working to solve those issues and supply the relevant information which should satisfy the planning committee.
Commissioning further surveys does come at a cost and Bala Lake Railway Trust needs an additional £25,000 to boost its fighting fund. Their aim is to get the revised application in to the local planning committee before Christmas.
Responses
It isn’t the UK. It just goes to show that Never, never should Wales and Scotland have been given their own “parliaments” We all are the United Kingdom!
Thank you to everyone who has taken an interest in this project.
To clarify on a few of the comments made:
The town council and Gwynedd Council have been very supportive throughout and are providing the railway with much assistance behind the scenes.
The sewerage issue comes down to the Conservation of Species and Habitats legislation, the river Dee is failing its phosphate targets downstream between Corwen and Chirk. Unfortunately the only controls on phosphate comes in planning regulations, which the National Park had to consider. At the time of the original planning application there was no way forward and any development that would increase phosphate in the river was deemed unacceptable. There are thousands of planning applications throughout Wales and England held up by this issue. Now in Wales, Natural Resources Wales have modelled flows in each affected river and determined a safe level of phosphate for each individual Wastewater Treatment Plant. Welsh Water has now confirmed the Bala plant is performing within its limits with headroom for the additional phosphate that a potential increase in visitors could bring. (In England the government are proposing to ignore the regulations, which may help developers but at a cost to nature).
The additional money, around £100k in total of which around £75k has been raised since April thanks to the generosity of supporters and the local community, is needed to pay for further surveys and specialist consultants so the revised application can be as water tight as possible. This is not very sexy for an appeal, but without this money to get this work done it won’t be possible to get the revised application to the required standard and therefore obtain planning permission.
If you would like to see the extension progress, please consider donating to the appeal, any amount large or small will help. Thank you.
I visted the area last weekend, and the work done so far is fantastic. It is really stunning along the lake now and they should be given the green light to complete what was hoped for when I was living in Bala many years ago.
I hope to see this completed and get the pleasure to ride the whole journey while I am fit enough to do so!
Preventing excessive pollution is important. It’s not excessive anything, it’s proportionate and sensible.
Nothing gets done in this country mainly because we have a lousy economy and a worse government.
No wonder nothing gets done in this country with all the killjoy penoushers trying to stop much needed change and innovation with fatuous objections. Weep for this land with such blind guides in control
These events could only happen in Wales.Lead people down the garden path then knock them over.This is despertly required.
What Bala needs is reconnecting to the mainline network.
Snowdonia may get millions of tourists every year but this number is concentrated within a small number of crowded honeypots.
Well back door taxing and corruption at its highest that is what it comes down and a load of jobs worth who don’t like the idea of tourists they want you all in sackcloth and barefeet there’s a word for these type of people who no absolutely nothing A Holes….
You are so right. The dead hand of civil terdants is suffocating us.
I would ask as to whom benefits from the addition £25 k that the railway now has to find despite the local council being all in favour some years ago when the project was first muted. Pigs and trough come to mind
Doesn’t this sorry saga demonstrate how run down public facilities are in the UK. Are we really saying the sewage system can’t cope with a few extra visitors, don’t forget the railway line is already running from Llanuwchllyn to the outskirts of Bala. How are public facilities so run down when the UK has its highest tax rates ever. It would rather suggest the philosophy that market knows best is a little suspect to say the least.
This is like a hurdle race, you clear one but O no there’s another one, that part of Wales’s economy runs on tourism, and the local councils should make it easier not harder for people trying to bring something to help with it.
All the local cows and sheep produce much more phosphate all year than extra tourists in the warmer months, and the council’s handling of this could best be described as a load of manure.
Like most things now in this Country of ours , there’s allot of administration and loops to get through . What good ideas that are proposed are never easy to get actioned , come on council see the light and stop making this extension hard work . The committee at Bala Railway are doing a fantastic job for the pleasure of us all to enjoy this piece of heritage
Bala needs all the tourist income it can get. Getting the railway actually in to Bala will be a great boost. Good luck to all involved.
It’s a joke they want the tourists to come into the area then block any attractions
That’s a) a very sweeping statement, and b) really not true. Snowdonia is over-run with tourists for quite a few months of the year….. attracting them isn’t a problem, it’s managing the huge numbers that has to be the priority.
Balancing the needs of a new/expanded tourist attraction against sometimes conflicting needs of the local community, and against the impact on local infrastructure (roads, drainage etc) is a very difficult balancing act. Councils invariably do the best they can in often very difficult situations.
The railway needs this and the boost to tourism in the area must be very welcoming to the hospitality industry of the town. We visited Bala Lake railway dome years ago and its a beautiful railway and deserves the extension to secure its future amongst one of Wales’s best tourist attractions.
Im not sure a lot of Welsh councils are particularly tourist friendly unfortunately, because if they were they would be snapping opportunities like this up to support the local economy. Don’t tell the council the engines run on coal otherwise it will definitely be refused!
If the welsh assembly.want to increase tourism to rural mid wales it sjould support the b.l.r. application and encourage more visitors to rhis part of rural wales. I noticed that the mary jones centre was bulit without comment on and near a bad d bend.. i’m sure local business would brnefit from more visitors to bala and .posdibly. more towns such as dollgellau & barmoth/ abermaw further west.
Hi. Most of the businesses and people of Bala are in favour of the extension and think it would be good for the area.
John Harrison. Wallasey, Wirral.
You’d have thought the council would be doing everything it could to help tourism in rural mid Wales rather than putting obstacles in the way. Maybe they think the little engines will do more than 20mph ?
They are allowed to go 25mph…
Good for you and hope you can resolve remaining problems