Bridgnorth Cliff Railway boss hopes to soon re-employ staff now repairs are 'weeks away'
The owner of the stricken Cliff Railway in Bridgnorth has said he is hoping that he can soon re-employ staff at the attraction, after hearing that repairs to a damaged retaining wall that saw it closed on health and safety grounds could be just "weeks away".
Malvern Tipping was forced to make 14 out of 16 staff redundant earlier this year after the railway was closed in December when the damaged retaining wall was discovered.
Since then, the town council has been working out who owns the wall at the top of the railway and is establishing the amount of work needed to fix it.
In a Town Hall meeting last week, Bridgnorth mayor Karen Sawbridge said that there was "considerable uncertainty" about the works required as well as the costs and the ownership.
However, she assured those at the meeting that the Cliff Railway was of the "utmost importance" to the town and that repairs to allow it to reopen were just "weeks away".
Attending the annual Bridgnorth parish meeting at the Severn Street Community Hall last week were six of the railway's laid off engineers and drivers.
Mr Tipping said his former workers returned from the meeting in "better spirits" and he hoped he could soon re-employ them to get the railway up and running again.
He said: "Six of the former staff were present and came away in much better spirits on hearing the town council say that work would be starting shortly.
"Hopefully, it will not be too many months before we can run an induction course at which we can re-engage our former staff."
