Can anyone shed any light on where this comes from?
The plan for one of the development areas in Wokingham includes a new road and a bridge over the railway. This is now being held up by negotiations with Network Rail over how much they are to be paid. At a recent meeting, a council officer said:
...the problem is with the negotiations between the consortium and Network Rail. There is a legal right for Network Rail to claim a share of the value that comes from development requiring a bridge over its track and the problem is that the consortium and Network Rail have a different view of what that value is. AE stated that Network Rail have not moved on their position in four years of negotiation.
I imagine that if building the railway reduced the value of neighbouring land, the promoter could have been required to pay compensation by the original railway act. So perhaps if building a bridge mitigates that loss, a repayment might be appropriate. But I can't see that working if no compensation was originally paid, and the cost of the bridge to the developers would be offset against it. Also, with the bridge
NR» will probably get to close one of the level crossings, and I'm sure that has a cash value.
It all sounds very odd.
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