Rail crossing concerns over huge new estate ignored, directors told

Members of a community group sent the letter yesterday to Nicholas Wrigley, the chairman of York-based Persimmon Homes, and 11 of the firm’s directors over the Manor Farm project in Doncaster. The controversial site, which lies on the edge of the suburb of Bessacarr is bounded on one side by the Doncaster to Lincoln railway route and on another by the north to south East Coast main line.

The Bessacarr and Cantley Community Forum persistently fought the planning application, but Doncaster’s planner finally gave permission, paving the way for almost 1,000 houses on former agricultural land.

But once the initial approval was given, protesters shifted their focus to the railway level crossings, which they claim should be replaced with an underpass before any homes are built.

In December, Persimmon announced plans to build 276 houses on the site, but said it would not provide an underpass until Christmas 2015 at the earliest.

According to forum spokesman Phil Midgley, who lives close to the site, yesterday’s letter was a bid to “shame” the board into taking action over the safety concerns raised by local people.

Speaking before a meeting of the group which was due to be held yesterday lunchtime, Mr Midgley said: “We do not think that Christmas 2015 is acceptable and the letter makes that clear.

“People who live in this area are not happy that residents of the new homes will be put at risk when they cross the busy railway tracks to get to the shops and schools in Bessacarr.”

Mr Midgley said the first phase of building had now been “reluctantly accepted” by the community but the lack of any new means of crossing the railway had not.

In the letter, which is also being sent to local MPs Rosie Winterton and Caroline Flint, and Doncaster Mayor Peter Davies, who also lives in Bessacarr, protesters say they feel that their “legitimate concerns are being ignored” by directors of the company.

The letter says: “It has been suggested that the underpass might be put in at Christmas 2015.

“However the forum maintains that four years is an excessive time to wait for the construction of an underpass when lives could be at risk.

“What is also disturbing is the fact that if the underpass is not complete by December 2015 and Persimmon wish to build more houses, this can be re-negotiated – even more reason why the underpass needs to be built sooner rather than later.

“The community vividly remembers the fatalities of a mother and two children from the local community who were killed crossing the East Coast main line in 1990 – the line that forms one of the boundaries of this development.”

The protest letter has also been sent to Network Rail, which is responsible for the track and would oversee any work on an underpass and the Office for the Rail Regulator, which is understood to be sympathetic to the protesters’ position.

Under the planning permission granted to the housebuilder, fences must be provided alongside the rail track to discourage people from using the crossings and make them take a longer route.

A further condition of the approval is that only 150 houses will be allowed to be occupied before the underpass is built.

Nobody from Persimmon Homes was available to comment yesterday, but the company has repeatedly said it has tried to work with local residents, both over concerns on the rail crossings and worries about a high-pressure gas pipeline which crosses the site.

Last summer Persimmon Homes Yorkshire managing director Andrew Bowes said the company had been listening to concerns and said his staff were “acting properly”.

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