It’s reasonable to presume that our great state-owned institutions will always behave reputably, or at very least lawfully; after all, they set an example for the rest of us to follow. The reality, of course, is that those employed by public bodies are as fallible as the rest of humanity; consequently, the power they wield - both legal and financial - occasionally gets misused when those involved are not kept an eye on.

In January 2021, it emerged that National Highways (NH) was developing plans to infill 115 legacy railway bridges and demolish 15 others, with more drip-fed onto the list as the weeks passed. Decision-makers looked through the narrowest of lenses and were sufficiently short-sighted to risk the loss of valued historical assets, inflict unnecessary environmental harm and diminish sustainable transport opportunities.

The company persistently claimed that the work was vital because of safety and capacity concerns, but 3,000+ pages of statements and evidence presented to a recent public inquiry demonstrated otherwise: driving it was the perceived imperative of reducing liabilities, a truth NH continues to deny. The financial benefits of infilling were, in most cases, marginal and never properly established as alternative strategies were not costed.

Perhaps more disturbing than the unwelcome social damage was NH’s attempt to push through most of its schemes without seeking planning permission. In part, this was achieved through the misapplication of legislation that enables the Crown to respond effectively to an emergency: Schedule 2 Part 19 Class Q of the Town and Country Planning (General Permitted Development) (England) Order 2015, hereafter known as Class Q. Through this vehicle, democratic process was circumvented and those with a vested interest disenfranchised as structures were put beyond use without their voice being heard.

The story of how Class Q came to be weaponised against our great railway heritage is a complex one and told here thanks to insight gained through Freedom of Information requests and brave sources close to National Highways’ Historical Railways Estate (HRE) team which is charged with managing 3,100 bridges, viaducts and tunnels on the Department for Transport’s (DfT) behalf. What follows has been pieced together with great care, albeit on the basis of fragmented evidence.

A 'Chuckle Brothers' episode

Class Q came into the consciousness of National Highways through a costly debacle at the 1.4-mile long Queensbury Tunnel in West Yorkshire - arguably the most strategically valuable HRE structure as it connects two large conurbations, Bradford and Calderdale, which are otherwise difficult to link for active travel purposes due to the local topography. A campaign to develop a Bradford-Halifax Greenway, via the tunnel, has been ongoing for many years, with multiple stakeholders supporting the idea.

The tunnel is notoriously wet, with ingressing water draining southwards, energised by a 1 in 100 gradient. In 1967, with the railway long gone, the rock cutting beyond the south portal was sold to Halifax Corporation for waste tipping purposes. But the material placed therein acted as a dam, preventing the water’s escape. The resultant flooding reached a typical peak of more than 8M gallons, extending 1,260 yards back into the tunnel as its level rose. Effective inspection and maintenance was rendered practically impossible.

In 2009, British Railways Board (Residuary) (BRB(R)) wrote to the owner of the cutting, setting out its intention to seek £5.2M in damages from him as a result of alleged water damage to the tunnel. A settlement was agreed in 2015 (after custodianship had been transferred to the body now known as National Highways) whereby the Secretary of State for Transport - as the structure’s owner - was granted a ten-year lease of land adjacent to the south portal, subject to the payment of £50 annual rent. NH used this right to construct a pumping station to dewater the tunnel and keep it dry.

At the end of September 2018, NH’s contractor, AmcoGiffen, was intending to start a six-week programme of works, erecting steel mesh strengthening panels below six shafts. This £545K intervention should have been the precursor to a bigger abandonment scheme involving partial infilling - priced at £3.02M - the planning application for which has so far attracted more than 8,000 objections.

Under Clause 5.4 of its Protocol Agreement with the DfT, NH is responsible for “meeting from existing funding all costs associated with the [HRE]”. In other words, although it was not a party to the lease, it was NH’s responsibility to pay the rent. However, it failed to do so when first due in March 2016, and again in March 2017. The landowner sent a Notice of Forfeiture to the DfT in December 2017 as a result of the non-payment, but no response was received and the lease was formally lost in June 2018. NH did not pay the rent in March 2018 and a total of £150 remains outstanding today. In itself, this is disreputable.

More importantly, six years of legal action - thought to have cost more than £200K - was rendered worthless as a result of what NH described in an email to the DfT as “a simple but unfortunate administrative error”, claiming not to have received the rent demands. However, under the terms of the lease, the money was due “whether formally demanded or not”: NH’s obligation was to pay it proactively.

The landowner switched off the pumping station in September 2018 to prevent AmcoGiffen relying on a dewatering system which was no longer under its control and not subject to any legal agreement. The tunnel began to flood again and reached its usual peak level between Christmas and New Year.

The contractor’s work had to be replanned to account for the loss of access from the south end of the tunnel. A temporary pumping system was installed, with the water being discharged into a nearby beck. Over 24 weeks, 57 pollution incidents were recorded, 19 of which were sufficiently serious to warrant reports to the Environment Agency.

When the project eventually concluded in 2021, the cost had risen to £7.2M. An act of incompetence on NH’s part had contrived to flush £6.7M of taxpayers’ money down the toilet.