Bescot Sleeper Facility 2018

Overview

The Plans

The proposed concrete sleeper facility is a key part of the Railway Upgrade Plan, to provide Britain with a better railway and meet the increasing demand from passengers and freight companies.

We want local people to be aware of our plans, so you can make your own views known once a planning application is submitted (due April this year).

The benefits of a new Concrete Sleeper facility

The proposed, modern facility at Bescot will:

•     Secure up to 100 manufacturing jobs in the West Midlands, helping to directly boost the local and regional economy.
•     Close the Westmore Way entrance to the site and create a new entrance onto the A4031
•     Deliver significant savings to taxpayers, as sleepers will be made and distributed more efficiently
•     Be screened by vegetation from nearby residential areas
•     Provide a new purpose for an underutilised brown field site

Background

In January 2018 we held a public information event to share our proposals. We wrote to in excess of 300 properties in the local area about the drop-in event and issued a press release to local media to raise awareness.

We gathered valuable feedback from stakeholders and the local communities, which has helped us to understand concerns and ongoing legacy issues locally.

Since then we’ve carried out further work to consider all potential options for the new facility and we’ve done our best to answer your concerns.

We are planning a second community event on Thursday 29 March 2018, 14:00 – 20:00. The aim continues to be to provide local people with factual information on planning, environmental impact and sleeper production so you can formally comment once a planning application has been submitted.

Why Bescot?

Bescot Rail Yard is an underutilised brown field site that offers good connectivity with rail and road networks. The chosen location of the sleeper facility was made following a national site search and is the optimal site for the taxpayer, as the development will sit on existing railway land.

Bescot is ideally located in the heart of the railway and will allow us to manufacture and distribute sleepers across Britain by rail, to support rail improvement works. This is better for the environment, coupled with a more efficient manufacturing process and a reduction in logistical costs will save taxpayers millions of pounds during the life of the facility.

How might this affect you?

Construction of the facility

The scheme is expected to take approximately 10 months to complete. We will do our best to schedule works to minimise impacts on the local community and road networks as much as possible.

Local roads

We expect construction traffic to have some impact on local roads.It will enter the site via the new entrace off of Sandy Lane. No construction traffic will enter the site from Westmore Way.

Environment

We will closely monitor noise and vibration during construction and will put in place measures to protect the impact on neighbours where necessary

We will continue to talk with all key parties to make sure our plans work together, and where possible take any opportunities to minimise the disruption to communities.

Answering your concerns

Following the public drop-in event on 10 January 2018, here are some of your key concerns answered:

Traffic

- An accurate forecast for vehicle movements is currently being compiled and will be shared at the public event.

-The existing main access off Westmore Way will be closed as part of the development, with a gate retained for emergency use only.

-A 1km-long access road will be built to connect the facility to the A4031 dual carriageway, sending traffic to and from junction 9 of the M6. This avoids residential streets as much as possible. (Sandy Lane residents will be affected).

Health and Environment

- A full Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) has been completed. The findings will be presented in an environmental statement which will form part of our planning application. This will identify any significant impacts and recommend appropriate mitigation measures to reduce them.

- The facility is a modern building which will meet all current standards for the containment of dust, light, noise and other pollutants.

Visual impact

-The height of the building will be 14m

-The height of the gantry crane will be 12m

-The height of the sleeper stockpiles will be 6m

-Fencing and mature planting will take place on the boundary with our neighbours

Operations

-The facility will not be manufacturing cement. It will be making concrete to be poured into moulds to make the sleepers.

-The existing sidings are currently operational 24 hours a day. The new facility will produce sleepers 24 hours a day when at full capacity but outside operations will be limited to between 07:00 and 23:00. The facility will not normally operate on Sundays.

-The gantry crane will be used prodominantly throughout the day to stockpile sleepers

We want your views…

We would be keen to meet with you again to discuss our plans in more detail and give you the complete picture of what’s proposed.

For further information, you can call Network Rail’s National Helpline on 03457 11 41 41.