Final push for new Devon railway station near M5

The fate of Cullompton railway station and its sister project in Wellington, Somerset, will be revealed at the end of the government’s spending review on June 11.

Daniel Mumby, Alex Richards www.devonlive.com 

Richard Foord MP (Honiton and Sidmouth) and Gideon Amos MP, (Taunton and Wellington) have been fervently campaigning for the two stations for months, engaging with transport ministers, participating in Westminster Hall debates and organising a parliamentary delegation in April.

Mr Amos raised the issue in the House of Commons on Wednesday (June 4), shortly after the chancellor announced over £15bn for UK-wide transport projects – an announcement which failed to provide any reassurance about the new stations.

“The chief secretary [of the Treasury] will know that the benefits of the Cullompton and Wellington stations project would bring tens of thousands of people to the city, the metro region and the Cardiff-Bristol-Exeter corridor. Thanks to a cost-benefit ratio of almost 4:1, will he acknowledge the strength of the case for that project, as set out in the letter he received from his honourable friends the members for Weston-super-Mare (Dan Aldridge), for North Somerset (Sadik Al-Hassan) and for Exeter (Steve Race) – and from me and my honourable friend Richard Foord?”.

Somerset Council has thrown its support behind the proposed new stations at Cullompton and Wellington which are anticipated to draw tens of thousands.

Planning permission was given in May 2024 by the council for a housing development on Nynehead Road, which includes provisions for station access, and detailed designs for the spine road, featuring pedestrian and cycle links, as well as plans for an inviting ‘station square’, were greenlit.

West of England Developments (Taunton) Ltd, responsible for the forthcoming homes and roads, has assured that the site earmarked for the station will remain safeguarded from any future development should officials decide against it. The government’s commitment to rail investment was reinforced with assurances from Darren Jones, Chief Secretary to the Treasury and MP for Bristol North West, who expressed gratitude to Mr Amos for his persistent advocacy on the matter.

He stated: “I thank the honourable member for his campaigning and for welcoming today’s news of historic levels of investment into the west of England for transport.

“The best use of the money is to make sure that not only do we deliver infrastructure within our combined authorities, but that opportunities are unlocked for broader spending decisions on intercity transport, heavy rail, road investments, new housebuilding and industrial policy spending.

“The review of the Green Book has been looking at this and further details will be published next week. However, I am confident that we will be able to unlock opportunities for areas outside the combined authorities, and the investment announced today makes a stronger case for doing so.”

Mr Jones added that the government would publish its “infrastructure strategy” shortly after the spending review which would lay out how the government would address supply chain issues and other problems in delivering major transport projects.

A fascinating analysis by the BBC.

[This was written late last week just as Reform Chair, Zia Yusuf, announced his exit, 48 hours later he re-entered stage right. Par for the course in the leadership turmoils of Reform. – Owl]

Joshua Nevett www.bbc.co.uk 

Reform UK’s success in the recent local elections has propelled many councillors with limited or no political experience into council chambers across England.

While Reform UK’s rise was the big story of those elections, almost half of the councils up for grabs were not won outright by any single party.

That means many of those newbie councillors are now navigating so-called hung councils, where parties with little in common often work together to get the business of local government done.

But so far, it hasn’t panned out that way for Reform UK, which isn’t involved in any formal coalitions, pacts or deals in areas where there were local elections this year.

This was despite rampant speculation about Reform-Conservative coalitions ahead of the polls, with party leaders Kemi Badenoch and Nigel Farage not ruling out council deals.

So, what’s going on?

In some places – Warwickshire, Worcestershire and Leicestershire – Reform UK has enough councillors to form minority administrations and is attempting to govern alone.

In other areas where coalitions were possible, Reform UK has either shunned co-operation or vice versa. Where Reform UK has explored potential partnerships locally, its policies have been viewed with suspicion by the established parties.

In Cornwall, the Liberal Democrats, Labour and the Conservatives refused to work with Reform UK, even though it was the biggest party and had won the most seats.

Instead, the Lib Dems teamed up with independent councillors to run Cornwall Council as a minority administration.

That infuriated Reform UK’s group leader in Cornwall, Rob Parsonage, who branded the coalition deal “undemocratic” and “a total stitch-up”.

Did other parties contrive to exclude Reform UK? The newly minted Lib Dem council leader, Leigh Frost, does not think so.

“The reality is our core values at heart of it just stand for two very different things and it makes working together incompatible,” Frost told the BBC.

“And then Reform was given two weeks to try to form an administration and chose not to.”

Frost said Reform UK’s Cornwall candidates mainly campaigned on immigration.

This was echoed in conversations with other local party leaders across the country.

The BBC was told Reform’s candidates had little local policy to offer and mostly focused on national issues, such as stopping small boats crossing the English Channel.

[For the record two Reform councillors, out of 28, have not yet attended any meeting in Cornwall and another three have only attended half the number they were slated to attend – Owl]

Slashing “wasteful spending” by councils, like Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency (Doge) in the US, was also a common campaign theme.

In Worcestershire, where Reform won the most seats but fell short of a majority, the party’s supposed lack of local policy was a major sticking point for the Conservatives.

“They haven’t got a local prospectus and that was part of the problem,” said Adam Kent, Tory group leader on Worcestershire County Council.

“They didn’t stand on any local issues. It was on national politics. How can you go into coalition with somebody if you don’t even know what they stand for?”

Joanne Monk, the Reform UK council leader in the county, said she only had “a brief couple of chats” with other party leaders but was uncompromising on coalitions.

“I’m damned sure we’re not on the same wavelength,” she said.

She followed the lead of Farage, who ruled out formal coalitions at council level but said “in the interests of local people we’ll do deals”, in comments ahead of the local elections.

In Worcestershire, Reform UK’s minority administration may need to do deals to pass key decisions and avoid other parties banding together to veto their plans.

Recognising this, she acknowledged other parties were “going to have to work with us at some point”.

In Northumberland, the Conservatives retained their position as the largest party and gave the impression they were willing to entertain coalition talks with Reform UK, which gained 23 seats.

“I said I would work with anyone and my door is open,” said Conservative council leader Glen Sanderson.

“But Reform the next day put out a press release saying the price for working with the Conservatives would be extremely high. So on that basis, I assumed that was the door closed on me.”

No talks were held and the Conservatives formed a minority administration.

Weeks had passed after the local elections before Mark Peart was voted in as Reform UK’s local group leader in the county. As a result, he wasn’t in a position to talk to anybody.

“Everything had already been agreed,” Peart said. “It was too late.”

Reform UK sources admitted the party was caught a bit flat-footed here and elsewhere as many of its new councillors got the grips with their new jobs in the weeks following the local elections.

A support network for those councillors, in the form of training sessions and a local branch system, is being developed by the party.

But this week Zia Yusuf, one of the key architects behind that professionalisation drive and the Doge cost-cutting initiative, resigned as party chairman, leaving a gap in the party’s leadership.

Reform UK’s deputy leader, Richard Tice, said the party’s success at the local elections “was partly because of the significant efforts and improvements to the infrastructure of the party” spearheaded by Yusuf.

Though Yusuf is gone, the party has considerably strengthened its foundations at local level, after gaining 677 new councillors and two mayors.

A Reform UK source said party bosses will be keeping an eye out for stand-out councillors who could go on to become parliamentary candidates before the general election.

They said in areas where Reform UK runs councils as a minority administration, it’s going to take some compromise with other parties and independents to pass budgets and key policies.

In the messy world of town halls and council chambers, that could be a tough apprenticeship.