Director of stricken Bridgnorth Cliff Railway says town council is 'wriggling out' of responsibility
The director of a funicular railway that has ground to a halt over health and safety fears has accused a council of trying to 'wriggle out' of paying its fair share for repairs.
The Bridgnorth Cliff Railway, which has run between High Town and Low Town since 1892, was closed in December after engineers discovered a potentially dangerous retaining wall.
At the time, it had been presumed that the deteriorating wall that posed a serious safety risk to the railway was on council property, and the town council was responsible for it, but it transpires that may not be the case.
It is understood that the town council is still assessing its "substantive position" as to how much, if any, liability the council has for the wall.
But the director of the cliff railway has threatened court action if the council doesn't cough up for the repairs.
Councillors at Bridgnorth Town Council were given an update on the situation affecting the cliff railway at a meeting on Tuesday, February 7.
While public and the press were excluded from the meeting, town clerk Clare Turner, who took over the role in December just before the cliff railway closed, has since said they are waiting for a report that will clarify the ownership of the wall.
She said: "We need to make sure we have crossed our Ts and dotted our Is and get our information correct when it comes to the ownership of the retaining wall."
The town council is due to set out its "substantive position" soon, but Ms Turner said that it had been "unfortunate" the discovery of the structural damage to the wall occurred just before Christmas and periods of bad weather have hampered efforts to uncover the extent of the issues and clarify ownership of the wall.
She added: "The town council's stance on this above all is safety - there are houses under the wall so we need to understand the potential risk and harm."
Since the funicular railway closed in December, its director, Malvern Tipping, has contacted solicitors to "reluctantly" make 14 of his 16 staff redundant.
He has now accused the town council of trying to "wriggle" out of its responsibilities, and is willing to battle it out in court.
He said: "The deeds show that the wall falls on a boundary and it is English law that liability falls on the land that the wall is retaining, which is common sense if you think about it.
"We are not even considering that we may be liable and will have to pay as we know we are not, no matter how much the town council tries to wriggle out of it. The liability falls on them.
"They [Bridgnorth Town Council] either step up to the plate or we instruct litigation solicitors, which will double the costs for them.
"We are willing to go to court."
