Mid-Norfolk Railway launches bid to keep platform at Wymondham Abbey Station
The heritage railway is trying to get permission to keep a temporary platform that was built in the 1990s
A heritage railway is seeking permission to keep using a station platform after discovering it should have been removed decades ago.
The temporary structure was installed at Wymondham Abbey Station in the 1990s, to allow the Mid-Norfolk Railway to run tourist services from there.
It was made from scaffolding, with boards laid on top, and was only meant to be a stopgap measure, with a more traditional platform due to be built.
When the plans were first approved in 1997 they included conditions demanding that the temporary structure should be gone by the end of 1999.
Twenty-four years later, the trust running the line has asked South Norfolk Council (SNC) if it can keep the scaffold platform until it has the funds for a proper replacement.
It said that the discovery its platform was in breach of planning conditions came as a “total surprise”.
A statement to SNC said: “Anecdotal evidence from railway colleagues suggests that the soft ground conditions of the River Tiffey Valley put an unaffordable construction cost on the project, for what was at this time an infant heritage railway.
“The ultimate intention is to create a new station facility, as and when funds permit, and thereby remove the scaffold platform.”