Legal battle for historic railway

Llangollen and Berwyn stations were to be renovated

A historic railway in north Wales has said it is in no danger of closing, despite being involved in a legal dispute with a construction firm.

The Llangollen Railway Trust (LRT) has been served with a winding up petition by the Chester Masonry Group (CMG).

There is no question of this affecting the day to day running of the railway or the future of jobs or staff at Llangollen railway

Trust Secretary Evan Green-Hughes

CMG claims the trust owes the firm more than £120,000 for refurbishment works at Llangollen and Berwyn stations.

In December, the trust was ordered to pay in excess of £126,000 to CMG by an independent arbitrator brought in to settle the disagreement.

But the LRT says it owes the company nothing.

The winding up petition was served on 9 January, and is due to be heard on 17 March.

"It is regrettable that CMG have had to resort to legal action," said a spokesman for the firm.

"Since LRT owe a substantial amount of money and have refused to honour the Adjudicator's Decision, CMG had no alternative."

Legal proceedings

Trust secretary Evan Green-Hughes refuted any possibility the dispute could lead to the closure of the popular tourist attraction.

"Legal proceedings between the trust and CMG are in the hands of solicitors and we very much hope we can come to a sensible arrangement," he said.

Llangollen railway is a popular tourist attraction

"But there is no question of this affecting the day- to-day running of the railway or the future of any jobs or staff at Llangollen railway."

CMG's workers walked out last year, claiming they had not been paid for their work.

LRT said it withheld payments because of "questions about the amount and standards of the work".

"The whole job should have been done by the end of September 2002," said Mr Green-Hughes.

"But out of the five structures being renovated, two were more or less finished by November, two had not been started and one was around 80% complete," he said.

According to CMG however, the minutes of progress meetings show the trust had been satisfied with the standard of the work done by CMG.

It also said the work carried out by CMG was independently certified by the trust's architect and approved by a monitor from the Heritage Lottery, which is supporting the project.

The LRT strongly denied claims made by CMG that the reason for the missed payments was that the trust did not have the money.