A LOCAL councillor has hit back at criticism of his decision not to support the allocation of £40,000 towards a feasibility study into the opening of a new railway station for Wellington.

Taunton Deane Borough Council allocated the money during the budget setting process in which, Cllr Andrew Govier said, thousands of pounds were cut from local groups and services within the town.

The Conservative administration approved plans to close Longforth toilets, slash funding for community groups like the Citizens’ Advice Bureau, community transport and support for vulnerable groups, and to remove hanging baskets from the town.

Cllr Govier said: “Although I am supportive of a new railway station for the town, I didn’t feel able to support this proposal. If this money was being allocated and there were to be no cuts to local services that would have been a different matter.

“The council is allocating £40,000 to a project that they admit probably won’t happen for at least ten years but at same time are going ahead with major cuts that will affect local residents. The feasibility study is likely to cost hundreds of thousands of pounds and we were given no idea where the rest of the money was going to come from.”

He added that the Government had recently told the town council that any funding for a new station would have to come from Somerset County Council. But it has not allocated any money for the feasibility study in its current budget or put the station in its plans for building work in the coming years.

Cllr Govier added: “‘Over the last few years I have worked with others to explore the possibility of a new railway station and will continue to do so.

“I have arranged meetings with people to try to progress this idea. However, I don’t believe that we should be spending money on consultants while we are cutting vital services.”