Decision due on rail crossing after 12-year campaign

A 12-year campaign to save a pedestrian level crossing beside a railway station is due to reach a conclusion later.

Protesters have been fighting since 2012 against proposals by Network Rail and local authorities to shut the facility in Wareham, Dorset.

Actor Edward Fox OBE, who supports the campaign, said a ground-level route across the rail line was of "vital importance" to the town's residents.

However, a Dorset Council report has recommended replacing the crossing with ramps leading to a footbridge, despite the failure of three previous similar schemes.

More than 200 people attended a protest on Saturday against the closure plan.

Edward Fox said: "This would cut the town in half, an extraordinary notion in itself, isolate vulnerable residents for whom it would be impossible to use the steep ramps and prevent schoolchildren from cycling to school."

There has been no road level crossing next to Wareham station since the town's bypass was built in 1973.

In 2010, manually-operated gates were installed at the pedestrian crossing, after Network Rail reported a high number of people ignoring danger signals.

Two years later, the rail authority said it would shut the crossing as part of a national programme of closures.

A proposal for replacement ramps fell through in 2013 because it was "not able to be constructed", Dorset Council said.

Planning permission for further ramps was refused in 2015 and 2018.

However, the authority is proposing the idea for a fourth time.

Previously, it had said the ramps would "provide a safer, permanent crossing facility".

Council cabinet members are recommended to approve the ramp later and to negotiate with Network Rail over contributions to the £4.7m cost.

The authority said it was currently paying £120,000 a year for crossing attendants to open the gates, and may alter their hours when a new contract is agreed next year.

Pedestrians have to use the existing stepped footbridge when the attendants are not working.

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