A FORMER mayor believes that plans for Wellington to have its own railway station are “dead in the water.”

Cllr Marcus Barr was among a 30-strong delegation which travelled to Parliament last month – led by local MP Gideon Amos and Honiton and Sidmouth MP Richard Foord – to press the case for new railway stations in Wellington and Cullompton.

They met with the Rail Minister, Lord Hendy, on the steps of Westminster Hall where they posed for photographs and presented him with two letters supporting the stations project – one from a cross-party group of South West MPs and one from Wellington Town Council.

Also among those who travelled to London to meet with Lord Hendy were Cllr Barr’s town council colleagues Cllrs Mark Lithgow, Steve Mercer and Keith Wheatley.

But Cllr Barr told members of Wellington Town Council at the authority’s annual meeting on May 7 that the trip to Westminster had been a wasted opportunity.

“I was disappointed,” he said. “We only got a couple of minutes with Lord Hendy – it was just a photo opportunity,” he said.

“I think the station project is dead in the water. If the Labour Government doesn’t want to do it, they won’t do it.

“It’s money down the drain.”

Cllr Barr, who is now a member of the Reform UK party, said: “I went with Cllrs Mercer, Wheatley and Lithgow – it was a Lib Dem jolly!”

In reference to Cllr Barr’s comment that the delegation only got a brief meeting with Lord Hendy, Cllr Mercer said: “Welcome to the real world.”

There are strong hopes, however, that the railway station project is still under consideration by the government.

Transport minister Simon Lightwood recently said during a debate in Westminster Hall in London that the strategic case for opening stations in Wellington and Cullompton remained clear.