THE possibility of reopening Cross Hills railway station remains uncertain after Craven District Council refused to contribute towards the cost of a feasibility study.

Members of the Economic and Development Committee agreed in principle to the six-month study which would look at reviving the village station.

However, the majority of members voted against contributing £10,000 towards the cost, feeling it was a lot to pay for something which was not guaranteed to happen.

The study would assess the infrastructure, including platform size, signalling, electrification, car parking and access, and Railtrack had estimated it would cost £42,000

Coun David Crawford described it as a chicken and egg situation.

"The whole thing is nebulous. More time and more discussions are needed. It could turn out that the feasibility study finds it's not feasible and our money would be down the drain. I think Railtrack should find the money," he said.

The £42,000 would be met by North Yorkshire and Craven Councils, each giving £10,000; the Rural Development Commission giving £10,500, Northern Spirit (the train operating company) giving £9,500 and Cross Hills' Ecology Building Society, which had expressed an interest in relocating to the site, giving £1,500.

Glusburn Parish Council had been asked to contribute £500 but had said it could not in view of the fact Railtrack was a private company.

Concern was expressed about the use of the station should it be reopened because of the higher fare charges in North Yorkshire as opposed to West Yorkshire.

"Not many get on the train at Cononley because of the cost. They get on at Steeton and Silsden instead," said Coun William Bradley.

Coun Ian Bannister replied that recent meetings with Railtrack had indicated the pricing structure could move together with the possibility of the Metro rates going up and North Yorkshire rates coming down, although it was not guaranteed.

Another concern was that the reopening of Cross Hills could mean the closure of Cononley and could also lead to even longer waits at Kildwick crossing - already known to be 40 minutes out of every hour.

Planning development manager Sian Watson told members that the level crossing was controlled by trains entering the station before the crossing.

When a train entered the station at Steeton, road users had a longer wait than they had for a train from Cononley.

She said the feasibility study would look at ways to reduce the waiting time rather than increase it.

Both Coun Ian Bannister and Coun Ken Hart were "disgusted and disappointed" at the vote against the study.

"We should be supporting this funding. We are supposed to be trying to get traffic off the roads and into public transport," said Coun Hart.

Press officer for North Yorkshire County Council Tony Webster told the Herald that the next stage in the proceedings was for the county council to consider the responses from the various organisations which had been asked for cash support.

This will be done at the next meeting of the Highways and Transport Sub-committee which is due to be held in late November or early December.

Converted for the new archive on 30 June 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.