Whitemoor Yard Consultation
The following information is based on the public consultation that took place in March Town Hall, March, Cambridgeshire from 11-12 July 2008. The consultation has now closed and we will be considering all the comments that we received carefully.
It explains our plans to create a world-class centre for recycling railway materials, bringing 25 new permanent jobs to March, removing thousands of unnecessary lorry journeys from the roads and saving more than 50,000 tonnes of materials going to landfill every year.
Please take this opportunity to;
- View our plans in advance of a planning application being made to Cambridgeshire County Council
- Ask questions of the Network Rail team via our e-mail link
- Give us your comments via the following email link: whitemooryardconsultation@networkrail.co.uk.
We will be considering all the comments we receive carefully before submitting the planning application.
History of Whitemoor Yard
Whitemoor Yard today
Our new proposals
Local planning policy
The environment at Whitemoor
Next Steps
History of Whitemoor Yard
Opened in March 1929, Whitemoor served as a marshalling yard for the old London North Eastern Railway. It grew over time and at the end of the 1930s it was among the biggest and busiest in Europe.
Whitemoor was so important during the Second World War that a decoy yard was established four miles away. Lights were set up in a field in the same pattern as those at the yard and left on during the blackouts to confuse the bombers, whilst those at the real yard were switched off.
However, from the 1960s the original yard started to decline as the railway changed. In the early 1990s it was forced to close and became derelict. Half the original site is now where Whitemoor Prison sits.
Whitemoor Yard today
Whitemoor’s decline was reversed in 2004, when the new yard opened. It is already vital in maintaining and improving the railway throughout Cambridgeshire, East Anglia and as far south as London, where it is important in supporting the 2012 Olympic Games investment. The new yard has created over 40 new jobs. The development has also brought £2 million worth of other benefits, including a new cycle path and a link road to reduce lorry trips through residential areas, as well as a multi-million pound signalling project, improving reliability of passenger and freight trains in the area.
In 2005 Network Rail, Cambridgeshire County Council and Fenland District Council were commended at the Royal Town Planning Institute achievement awards for ‘bringing the railway back to March’. Whitemoor Yard has also won awards at the National Transport Awards and from the Institution of Civil Engineers.
It was always planned that we would build on the success of phase one of Whitemoor with further railway facilities and new jobs for the local community. This exhibition explains our new proposals.
More than 3,500 people joined Network Rail to celebrate the opening of the Whitemoor Distribution Centre in May 2004.
“We are overwhelmed with the interest the community has shown towards the depot and we are proud to have been able to open up our gates and show the public what we have achieved.” Peter Heubeck, Network Rail, May 2004
Our new proposals
Network Rail proposes to build on the success of the first phase of Whitemoor Yard, creating 25 new jobs. Using the 50 acres of derelict land behind the current facilities, we will be able to create world-class railway recycling facilities to further improve the railway’s environmental performance.
We are investigating the following options for this site;
Track recycling
A new track material recycling facility could allow us to sort, clean, process and recycle old worn out rails and items in one place, taking hundreds of lorries off the roads every year.
Points and other rail recycling
New areas to store, process and weld the useable parts of points and other rail items, allowing them to be reused on the railway.
Concrete sleeper recycling
Old and broken concrete sleepers could be broken down, creating aggregate that can be recycled in road building or construction across the region. Currently roads are built using aggregate that arrives by road from as far away as Leicester and these proposals will reduce that need. This will also reduce the number of concrete sleepers that require disposal; often by landfill, a number that currently stands at 500,000.
Ballast washing and recycling
The stones (ballast) under and alongside the railway track wear out over time and could be cleaned of locomotive oil and other residue by a washer in site. The clean ballast could then be recycled saving 50,000 tonnes going to landfill every year.
Wooden sleeper processing
Contractors are paid to dispose of 10,000 tonnes of scrap wooden sleepers every year. We are currently examining new sustainable and efficient ways of disposing of the wood.
“Phase two in the development of Whitemoor Yard signals good news for the local community.
Having recently looked into Network Rail’s proposal, both in discussions and on-site, I am confident that this development will provide significant economic and social benefits to the town of March and the region of East Anglia. I am eager to hear about positive progress on this project in the coming months.” Malcolm Moss MP
Local planning policy
Emerging Cambridgeshire planning policies identify Whitemoor as a site where recycling and waste disposal facilities should be located. Cambridgeshire particularly encourages recycling facilities that are accessible by rail.
The phase two proposals fit Cambridgeshire and Fenland Council’s planning policies and future vision for the area. In particular the Cambridge and Peterborough Minerals and Waste Site Specific Proposals Plan preferred options allocates Whitemoor for recycling and recovery and safeguards it for waste uses.
The adopted Cambridgeshire Waste Plan identifies part of the site for waste management. Policies in this plan favour proposals which are accessible by rail and deal with the waste close to the point of generation.
The draft Fenland Core Strategy considers that within March there is potential to build on the phase one yard, as we are proposing to do in phase two.
The environment at Whitemoor
At Whitemoor Yard we look after several important plants and animal species. We will be continuing the work we began in phase one with the recycling facilities we propose for phase two.
Great crested newts
Whilst derelict the site became home to a colony of protected newts. In order to preserve this population Network Rail created new habitats in ponds to the south of the site. If more newts are found on the phase two site they will also be carefully moved to ponds around the site.
Drainage ponds
Not only a home for the newts, the drainage ponds play an important role in protecting the local area from flooding. We plan to create new ponds to make sure our phase two proposals also protect the area.
Acid grasses
The grass on the old yard included a protected acid variety. Network Rail preserved the grassland by moving 22,000 tonnes of soil and vegetation from the phase one site to a site in Connington, as well as moving it around the site itself. For phase two, we will move any remaining acid grassland to a special mound around the edge of the site, where possible.
Dust suppression
We are already careful to ensure dust is reduced to an absolute minimum with a water spraying system in operation. Our proposals for phase two include new dust suppression systems, which use recycled rain water where possible, and new tarmac and concrete on some areas of the site.
Sound control
To ensure there is as little noise as possible we have already built sound fences close to homes to the east of the yard, installed grease units to prevent wheels from making too much noise on the rails and installed a new signalling system to prevent trains waiting to access the yard. We have taken care to locate all the facilities in the centre of the site and will examine the option for further sound barriers if necessary.
"Wardell Armstrong were pleased to be involved in the Environmental works on phase one. Network Rail have demonstrated attention to detail and professionalism in their approach to the works and ongoing management of the biodiversity on the site.” Mark S Bedford, Director, Wardell Armstrong LLP