Rail station would benefit so many, council told

Gill Jinman is supporting her late husband's campaign for a new station at Pontrilas

A woman is trying to keep alive her late husband's campaign to bring a railway station back to an "overlooked" part of Herefordshire.

Gill Jinman said a new station at Pontrilas would give people an alternative to driving into Hereford, telling a Herefordshire Council meeting it would "benefit so many".

Her husband Peter Jinman, a Golden Valley South councillor, was a leading light in the Golden Valley Parkway scheme, which would serve rural communities.

Ms Jinman asked Philip Price, cabinet member for transport, why the council's draft local transport plan (LTP) made no mention of the project. Price said it remained "fully supportive" but the scheme was still in its early stages.

The plan "prioritises schemes that are more advanced in deliverability and alignment with government funding programmes – but it is a flexible, evolving framework for the council's vision for transport", Price said.

"We remain fully supportive of the Golden Valley Parkway station scheme, but it is still in the early stages of development and does not yet have the detailed business case or funding commitment from government or Network Rail," he said.

'Don't reinvent the wheel'

But Ms Jinman said a "strategic outline business case" and feasibility study for the project, were published in 2020.

"Rather than reinvent the wheel, it would be cheaper and quicker to update the 2020 plan, as I believe that only relatively minor areas of supplementary work would be required to do this," she said.

The new station "would require so much less funding than the [Hereford] bypass, she added.

Peter Jinman was first elected to Herefordshire Council in 2017

Since the closure of Pontrilas station in 1958, there are no rail stops along the 24-mile stretch between Hereford and Abergavenny, in Monmouthshire.

The station would be renamed Golden Valley Parkway, if the proposals are given the green light.

Mr Jinman died shortly after being re-elected as an Independent councillor on Herefordshire Council, in May 2023.

Also a vet, he was awarded an OBE for his services to the veterinary profession in 2004 and had worked with the government on animal welfare issues.

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This news was gathered by the Local Democracy Reporting Service which covers councils and other public service organisations.