DERBY City Council has pledged its ‘wholehearted support’ for rail companies based on the city’s RTC Business Park, which the Government has put up for sale.
There are fears that key businesses could lose their vital rail connections if a buyer wants to use it for other purposes.
Harvey Jennings, the Conservative leader of Derby city council, told the Derby & Derbyshire Railway Forum’s conference: “I give a pledge to the RTC-based companies that they have the wholehearted support of the council to maintain their rail connections and their ability to remain in business.”
Cllr. Jennings, who was speaking on Thursday, said the city council was having talks with BRB(Residuary) Ltd., a subsidiary of the Department for Transport, which has put the 11 hectare site up for sale for £16 million. The sale has been arranged as BRB(R) itself is being prepared for abolition as part of the government’s quango cull.
According to BRB(R), which is the legal successor to the former British Railways Board: “Land is only disposed of when it has been agreed with the Department for Transport that there is no need for it to be retained for future railway purposes.”
A major concern in Derby is that a buyer of the site may wish to use the land for other purposes, such as residential or retail development.
The site, which until privatisation was home to BR’s Railway Technical Centre, and was opened by the Duke of Edinburgh in 1966, is situated between the A6 London Road and the Derby-Long Eaton rail route, to which it is connected.
Rail industry companies currently based on the RTC Business Park include Network Rail, RVEL, Serco Assurance, Rampart Carriage & Wagon, DEU, Garrandale Engineering and Huber & Suhner.