Letter: There Are Other Examples of the National Trust Not Accepting Responsibility

Published on: 28 Oct, 2022
Updated on: 28 Oct, 2022

From: Keith Francis

In response to: A Temporary Bridge Over Tumbling Bay Weir Is Feasible, Says Leading Engineer

I too am sorry that this repair is taking so long but here we’ve had similar difficulties when the National Trust is involved where it was subsequently confirmed that the total responsibility for replacing a road bridge across a stream on a private road was theirs and should be completed at no cost to nearby householders.

Also, following the closure of the Leatherhead to Guildford railway line last Sunday, due to a train hitting a fallen tree near Bookham, another possible hidden problem with the National Trust arose and will do so again on three weekends between now and Christmas due to scheduled work on the same railway line.

Why? Along Little Bookham Street down to Bookham railway station and from it along Church Road up to Great Bookham village there are overhanding oak tree branches which need cutting back as each time the temporary double deck bus goes by its front nearside hits them.

Whose responsibility is it to cut them back? The National Trust, as the trees are on its land.

However, from past experience when we regularly had double-decker buses on the 479 bus route, the bus drivers didn’t record and photograph, as they should do, every time a bus roof was struck. It was then too tedious for the bus operator to claim the cost of repairing the buses from the trees’ owner, the National Trust.

While Surrey County Council is responsible for the roads this matter is not for them although I believe that in the past it did get the trees cut back and provide a bill.

As for the Tumbling Bay weir bridge, why can’t, as others have suggested, the army build a bridge as part of their engineers’ training?