Charging developers for bridges

[whole diary]

[stuving]

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^» (Network Rail - home page) will probably get to close one of the level crossings, and I'm sure that has a cash value.

It all sounds very odd.