PENDLE councillors have urged Lancashire’s leaders to buy a £50,000 section of old railway line running from Colne to Foulridge.

Former trackbed running between the town and village is crucial if a campaign to reinstate the line from Colne to Skipton is to prove successful.

The county council already owns the section from Foulridge to the old county border.

And members of the Lancashire Local Pendle committee have now supported moves for Lancashire County Council to pay £50,000 for the Colne to Foulridge section of the route, from land agents representing British Railways Board.

Lobbyists from SELRAP (Skipton to East Lancashire Rail Action Partnership) have welcomed the decision, taken at a meeting in Barnoldswick.

The campaign’s officials have also questioned Lancashire County Council claims that it will need to spend £500,000 in maintaining and upgrading bridges.

David Mawsdley SELRAP’s planning and development officer said certain elements of the county’s assessment, of the prospective purchase, were designed to ‘frighten off’ the authority from paying out the £50,000.

He said: “There is no suggestion that LCC has spent any significant amount on the trackbed it already owns during the last 35 years, or that it has incurred any liability to those using the trackbed it already owns.

“So why should the additional section of the old trackbed be any different?”

The other suggestion made by the county council was that the land could be purchased by regeneration body Sustrans and transformed into a multi-use path, wihich would not harm long-term ambitions to restore the rail link.

Mr Mawdsley added: “The report suggests that re-opening the railway from Colne to Skipton is a long-term project, for which there is no interest from the rail industry.

"That is not necessarily the case.

“The Rail Minister, Lord Adonis, has agreed to meet a delegation led by Gordon Prentice MP, in the near future, to discuss SELRAP's campaign to see the railway re-opened.”