ESCALATING forecasted costs have derailed plans to develop a brand new cafe building at Oxenhope Railway Station.

News that this particular Keighley & Worth Valley Railway (K&WVR) project was "dead in the water" was revealed at the latest meeting of Oxenhope Parish Council.

Councillors said they were disappointed that the scheme would not be going any further.

But speaking after the meeting, K&WVR chairman Dr Matt Stroh noted that even though this specific application for Oxenhope's station would not be progressed, the railway would continue to explore alternative ways of enhancing its catering facilities.

The railway currently operates a cafe housed in a buffet carriage at Oxenhope.

A detailed e-mail from the K&WVR about the planning application for the new cafe, which was presented to the parish council, explained: "The bottom line is that this project is now dead in the water and will not be going ahead in the foreseeable future.

"The reasoning behind this is that the groundworks, reinforcing the boundary between the road and 'our' land and building of the cafe – with a £250,000 budget – have now been estimated at £900,000, plus contingencies.

"As a charitable organisation we simply do not have around £1 million to put into this project, given we are having, year by year, to invest in our track, stations and most importantly our engines and rolling stock."

He added that this also means that the railway's original plan to extend its car park at Oxenhope is not going to happen.

He said: "The present cafe [at Oxenhope] in its present position – it cannot be moved – will continue.

"All I can personally add is that I, and many other working volunteers on the railway were looking forward to this development with a view to increasing our income and visitor experience.

"But given the amount of money required we can quite clearly see why this cannot go ahead. We would never recover the capital amount required for the development and we are a charitable organisation with limited income."

Plans for the intended cafe at this station were passed by Bradford Council back in August 2016.

The railway had hoped to build a 100-seater cafe, arguing that it would be not only a great asset for the railway but for Oxenhope and the wider area.

If it had been built, the cafe and its associated kitchen and toilets would have been accommodated in a single storey building on the western side of Oxenhope Station's existing exhibition shed, facing towards the car park.

The railway had wanted to develop a 350 square metre property with a curved, mostly glazed facade.

Dr Stroh this week said: "If we built something on or alongside the station platform we would have to bridge over the river, which may not have been impossible but would have been an engineering challenge, leading to increased costs.

"Building it alongside the exhibition shed would have comprised a lot of groundworks to get the levels right. And until you start digging you don't know whether there could be even more costs involved.

"We don't want to commit to something that might be an open-ended cheque. £1 million is a very big sum to commit the railway to."