A bold plan to convert what is left of the former Sheppey Light Railway into a track for cycling and walking has passed its first hurdle, reports Kent-on-Line.
image: for illustration – By Clem Rutter, Rochester, Kent. – Own work, CC BY 2.5
… scope to convert what remains into a ‘greenway’…
Kent-on-Line writes:
Around 50 people turned up for a public meeting to hear Sheerness town councillor Linda Brinklow outline her plans to breathe new life into the 11-mile line which once linked Queenborough in the west to Leysdown in the east.
Many parts of the abandoned track are now overgrown or have been built on since it closed in December 1950 after bosses deemed it unviable.
But Cllr Brinklow is convinced there is still scope to convert what remains into a ‘greenway’ to open up the Island to cyclists and walkers in the same way the Crab and Winkle line has done for Whitstable. Some evidence of old stations remain and the line can still be picked out in aerial photographs.
It is not the first time the idea has been raised.
In 2007, the Green Cluster Studies for Sheppey spoke of a ‘vision’ for an east-west, off-road ‘greenway’ with ‘access for all’. The sustainable transport charity Sustrans suggested it in a 2013 report and included it in its 2020 audit…
Among those at the meeting at Sheerness East Working Men’s Club last month (Sept) were Martin and Rosemary Hawkins, of the Eastchurch Aviation Museum.
Mr Hawkins said at one stage there were 3,000 men at Eastchurch aerodrome which is why a railway line was needed to bring in supplies….
