THE Liberal Democrats have announced that they will re-open the Tavistock to Bere Alston railway line without the need for extra housing if they get into government.
Accusations have been made by the party that the proposal to re-open the railway line by Kilbride Community Rail, part of the Kilbride Group, was merely a 'bribe' to facilitate the building of new housing.
Kilbride plans to spend £18.5million in restoring the 5.5 mile track, in exchange for building 500 homes near Monksmead — in addition to 250 already earmarked in the local plan.
Norman Baker, Shadow Transport Minister, announced that a Liberal Democrat administration would re-open a number of railway lines, including the Tavistock line, by injecting additional funding into the public transport system.
The Liberal Democrat prospective parliamentary candidate for West Devon and Torridge, Adam Symons, welcomed the support to re-open the line without the further development pressure in Tavistock.
He said: 'Everyone can see the sense in re-opening the line. However, the case for 750 new houses has not been made.
'Effectively the reopening of the railway line was a "bribe" to sweeten the new housing.
'The Lib Dems have committed to re-open the line without the need for this over-development of Tavistock.
'We are committed to improving local public transport, and will invest in the long term future of our country, not only by re-opening this railway line, but by building high-speed cross-country links across Britain.'
Cllr Alison Clish-Green, the Liberal Democrat group leader on West Devon Borough Council, added: 'The re-opening of the line using housing has not been properly thought through.
'Most people I have spoken to do not want another 750 houses built just so that we might reinstate the rail link.
'We also need to consider how people access work on the outskirts of Plymouth, as they would need to get from the station out to places like Derriford or Plympton.'
Kilbride said it did not wish to comment at this stage.