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Sad news indeed - James, the sitting tenant, was always friendly towards the volunteers and kept half an eye on the site when nobody was working there.
Taskmaster - you are probably being conservative in thinking the value of the site has suddenly increased by £100k (money that WR should quite...
Planning restrictions at Aysgarth are likely to be very restrictive. The site lies within the Yorkshire Dales National Park, 100 yards away from a National Parks visitor centre. Furthermore it is surrounded by woodland that is designated a Site Of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI). I...
But you are missing the point. Tourists don't want to start their experience at Leeming Bar, or even Bedale (let alone Northallerton for goodness sakes). WR in its present form goes from nowhere to nowhere. And who wants to spend an hour each way going from nowhere to nowhere? The only...
Redmire [B]is[B] a disused freight terminal. Apart from the pub, ten minutes walk into the village (which is excellent by the way) there are no facilities at all - not even somewhere to shelter from the rain. That was the whole point of the Aysgarth Ambition - Aysgarth was the somewhere that...
I'm saying the "Aysgarth Ambition" is raising funds to extend the line to Aysgarth. The word Aysgarth surely is the key. If both the charity, and the plc it continues to bail out, have decided to sell the intended terminus then surely the "ambition" is no longer achievable.
It would be interesting to know how the money raised for the Aysgarth Ambition has been spent (if indeed it has). It certainly hasn't been spent on the purpose for which it was raised. One legitimate way of spending the money would have been to secure the Aysgarth site by paying off the loan...
It must not be forgotten that Aysgarth currently generates a 5 figure annual income stream that must be offset against the cost of the loan. With a little imagination and business acumen the site could generate a healthy profit.
As an earlier donor to the justgiving campaign I questioned the legality with the justgiving organisation and in their response to me they said that they will continue to hand over any donations on a weekly basis regardless of how the monies are being used by the charity.
They did suggest...
Also front page headline news in the Darlington and Stockton Times. In addition, the editorial makes interesting reading as does a letter from one of the founding figures of the Wensleydale Railway. The sooner this matter is opened to scrutiny the better.
The only person that springs to mind who meets that description is the ex-Director of NRM. Looking at his track record things certainly didn't go too well under his tenure.
A good summary otto52. The net cash released by the sale of Aysgarth will be a mere drop in the ocean of what is required to run an increasingly dilapidated railway that is much too long, travels through unremarkable countryside for much of its length and quite frankly cannot attract the numbers...
Trackmaster, your post reminded me that a while ago I made a donation to the crowd funding website - raising money to extend the line to Aysgarth. In view of recent events I feel that I am owed a refund. It is hardly believable that the web funding is still live when the AGM papers state "the...
Totally agree DerekC. As one of the hard won volunteers I feel completely let down by the ineptitude of the guys at the top. There was an interesting article in the latest issue of the house magazine ("Relay") entitled "the invisible railway". It summarised the lack of vision, or dare I say...