New railway station for Devon town

A Devon town will get a new railway station after a "significant victory" in winning funding.

A campaign to build a new station on the main line at Cullompton has been going on for years and campaigners say it is key to unlocking the building of 5,000 homes nearby in the Culm Garden Village development.

Richard Foord, Liberal Democrat MP for Honiton and Sidmouth, said there was an "irrefutable business case" for reopening the station and also welcomed the reopening of Wellington station further up the line in Somerset.

The Chancellor made no mention of the scheme in the Spending Review on Wednesday but HM Treasury officials confirmed the funding to MPs later in the day.

The new station will be built next to the motorway services at junction 28 of the M5.

Cullompton station initially opened in 1844 and was rebuilt in 1931, before closing in 1964 as part of the Beeching cuts.

The town is also pushing ahead with a £34m relief road for Cullompton which had funding approved in 2024.

Foord said he had worked with his colleague Gideon Amos, Liberal Democrat MP for Taunton and Wellington, on pressing the case for both stations with the government.

He said: "It has been a long campaign over many years, with hundreds of people determined to secure this historic outcome."

Steve Keable, cabinet member for economic regeneration at Mid Devon District Council, said the funding was "fantastic news" that was "so needed" for growth in Cullompton.

He said: "This will make it possible for people to commute from Cullompton into Exeter, Taunton and Bristol.

"This scheme is on the shelf and ready to go and we could see a new station in Cullompton within a couple of years."

The railway station at Okehampton was reopened in November 2021 and a new station on the eastern edge of the town to connect rail lines to north Cornwall and north Devon is due to open in 2026.

HM Treasury confirmed funding for the reopening of Cullompton and Wellington had been made available as part of the Spending Review and said further details would be set out shortly.

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