Cliff railway closure fears over wall dispute
BBCBridgnorth Cliff Railway has said it may have to shut if it is asked to pay for repairs to a nearby wall.
The funicular railway, which transports people between High Town and Low Town, shut for 14 months in 2022 after a retaining wall was damaged. After disputes of wall ownership the town council paid £750,000 for the work and it was completed in December 2025.
The case has not yet been resolved and the railway's owner, Malvern Tipping, said if he was asked to pay for the repairs it would mean the railway would not be able to afford upgrade work, and it would have to shut.
The town council said the day-to-day upkeep and investment for the railway remained "entirely matters for the operator."
The repairs resulted in an increase in council tax for residents of the Shropshire town. Fourteen railway staff were made temporarily redundant while repairs took place.
Tipping said the council had initially made a party wall claim against the railway, but surveyors concluded it was not a party wall case.
Generally, the "building owner" who initiated the work pays for it, if the works are solely for their benefit, however there are cases where the adjoining owner should pay part of the expense of the works.
Tipping said the wall runs through council land apart from about 7ft (2.1m) which comes up to the railway boundary, but even that was on the council side of the boundary.
"That part of the wall didn't require the great deal of work that was applied to the rest of the wall," he added.
After the surveyor deemed it was not a party wall case, it became a legal case, before the railway was told by the council at the end of 2025 that it was being reverted back to a party wall case.
"Since then, we've heard absolutely nothing," Tipping said.
"Our own party wall surveyor contacted the other side about two weeks ago, saying as he hadn't heard anything from them, he could assume that he could close his file, but he was advised not to do so."
He said he did not know if the authority would ask for the repair money, and that they had been "left in limbo".
'We need certainty'
However, he said, if they were asked to foot the bill, they would not be able to afford to make vital upgrades to the railway.
"We want to upgrade the Cliff Railway, it's got electrical systems and controls which are about 80 years old and we wish to upgrade those," he said.
"We had a quote at the end of 2022 for £88,000 to do that, we were just on the verge of signing the contract for that when this episode arose."
Tipping said they did not sign this contract at that time because they did not know whether the railway would have a future, due to the issues with the wall.
"Now the cost of the upgrades has quadrupled," he said.
Tipping said he wanted the council to admit that it was their wall and that the railway was free to invest in the railway upgrades.
"It's just deafening silence, we're left in limbo, we need certainty," he added.
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