Historical Railways Estate

Dear Sir/Madam

Please provide all correspondence and documentation (reports, studies etc) regarding strategic plans for management of the Historical Railways Estate, the future role of Highways England in relation to the HRE and the transfer of HRE management functions - whether confirmed or not - to a private company/provider of Professional Services.

Yours faithfully

Graeme Bickerdike

Dear Sir/Madam

Thank you for your response.

Could you please give an indication as to when you expect Government policy on the future management of the HRE to have been established/confirmed?

Yours faithfully

Graeme Bickerdike

Dear Sir/Madam

In the absence of a response to my query of 21 December 2020, I am writing to request an internal review of the Department for Transport's handling of my FOI request P0019024 'Historical Railways Estate'.

You assert that “Ministers and officials need to be able to conduct rigorous assessment on any future policy concerning [sic] without the risk of the information being prematurely disclosed”.

However it has become clear that significant policy decisions have already been taken in respect of the Historical Railways Estate, including:
* increasing the works budget from a typical annual figure of £6M to £36M
* proposals to demolish or infill more than 100 structures
* the use of permitted development powers to progress infilling schemes
* contractual provision to transfer management of the HRE to a private company.

The loss of structures with potential value in the context of future rail and active travel provision, and the investment of hundreds of millions of pounds in asset management activity from which the taxpayer derives no tangible benefit is clearly a matter of significant public interest and I therefore believe that your public interest test - which only considered generic factors - was flawed.

A full history of my FOI request and all correspondence is available on the Internet at this address: https://www.whatdotheyknow.com/request/h...

I look forward to hearing the outcome.

Yours faithfully

Graeme Bickerdike

Dear Sir/Madam

Yes, I would still like you to conduct the internal review I requested.

Yours faithfully

Graeme Bickerdike