The Somerset and Dorset Railway Heritage Trust will be asking for the support of Midsomer Norton Town Council at its bi-monthly full meeting, due to be held as The Journal went to press on Tuesday evening this week.

The Trust’s ‘multi-million pound vision’, it says, will bring social, economic, health and environmental benefits to the community and beyond.

The plan states that the well-loved station, on Midsomer Norton’s Silver Street, has reached a ‘turning point’ and now feels empowered to seek funding and public engagement for the plans, backed by a legacy it has received, and which will kick-start the vision for the station’s future; which includes extending the line across Silver Street and towards Radstock.

As well as this, there are further ambitious plans, including redesigning the site to make it into a better and more vibrant visitor attraction, more attractive from the road and with better accessibility. It hopes to extend the existing maintenance shed to provide a flexible space, which would potentially offer restaurant facilities and outside dining space; lecture space, crafts and micro-brewery.

There would also be six new commercial units to complement the existing musuem building; two for café/bar uses, a cycle hire facility, two artisan retail units and a further four new lower-level units; one for dedicated training and education, an artisan unit and two others for business use.

As part of its tourism plan, there would also be three new accommodation units – a two-bed apartment and two one-bed apartments, with a communal garden.

A new carriage and locomotive maintenance shed would provide better workshop and training space, with an additional boiler repairs centre for commercial use. Additional new structures include new toilets, improved open spaces and a bridge connection over Silver Street to further the line. There are also hopes to open up connectivity between the facility and the High Street, the cycle route and the Nature Reserve.

As well as the tourism benefits, the Trust hopes that the plans would help the community as a whole, bringing an economic boost to the area and encouraging visitors to spend money in the surrounding areas, too.

Most importantly, it argues that this growth would mean it could offer better work with local schools for ‘living classrooms’, which it does already, and also those who are struggling with their studies. The plans argue it could help with mental health; citing initiatives such as the recently formed ‘Men’s Shed’, to help those who are lonely or isolated to learn new skills and meet new people.

The idea now is to submit the plans as an outline planning application to the local authority, but the backing of Midsomer Norton Town Council will also be crucial, as much work would then need to be done to obtain grants and funding for the work.

The Somerset and Dorset Railway Heritage Trust is a charitable trust with over 1,300 members. It acquired its first lease on Midsomer Norton’s Railway Station in 1995, in order to restore the station and some of the track.

All of the work on site is carried out by a dedicated band of volunteers, over one hundred of whom regularly attend.

Planning Consultant, Joseph Marchant, told The Journal: “We hope the plans will provide a boost for the area economically.”