Portishead - should I sell or should I go ??

nollag2006

Mrs. Nollag lived in Portishead, outside Bristol, for many moons before we married and moved to London.

She has kept her flat there, and is renting it out, even though we both know we could get higher rental yields in other parts of the country.

The reason for her doing this is that she is holding out hope for the railway line to be extended from Bristol, to what is the largest town in the country not to have a rail link. According to the local railway action group (www.portisheadrailwaygroup.org), the railway line is already there – they just need to put passenger trains on it again

There is a petition on the Downing Street website to re-open the line also (http://petitions.pm.gov.uk/portisheadrail/).

My question to locals of North Somerset area is, how realistic is it that the railway line might re-open in the next five years ??? We are considering whether or not to sell up and buy elsewhere, or not.

Debt_Free_Chick

It doesn't seem to be on the Dept of Transport's priority list according the most recent assessment of the development needs for the railway, in the South West.

I don't know what the process is for getting a line re-opened, but would have thought that DoT support was pretty important

A question for your local Councillor, I think, as N Somerset Council had supported the idea in the past - but it needs Government funding, I think.

V_Chic_Chick

I live quite near Portishead (about 20 minutes away), and I haven't heard any rumblings about a railway at all. If it went through where I lived and it provided a decent service then I would use it to get into Bristol in the mornings instead of the car.

As D_F_C said, try asking the local councillor, who I believe is Liam Fox.

fistfullofdollars

lol, I grew up in P'shead.

It used to be really nice now its just like any other chav town thanks to all the newbuilds that have gone up IMO. Thanks to Kirsty and Phil's top ten places to live a couple of years ago. Most of it seems BTL.

I wouldnt live there now, shame really.

nollag2006

Thanks all. Have e-mailed Liam Fox, and will come back to let you know the result.

Cheers

N

martnewts

I live in portishead and would not agree that it is a typical chav town due to all the new build that has gone up. I have lived here all my life and it has changed markedly (increase in size due to develpoment) but I would not say that the new build properties have attraced "chavs" especially since the majority are priced £250K and above.

The railway line has been talked about on and off for 15 years and longer but does not seem to be near the top of anyones agenda to actually happen.

I would not expect it be to be open within five years as whilst the track exists I would imagine that it would need considerable maintenance / replacement judging by the parts of it I have seen.

The local authority missed their opportunity to make the developers contribute towards re opening the railway line as a part of the planning approval (I believe the total number of new homes being built is 4,000 overall)

You say that the rental yield on the flat has not been great, however the capital appreciation has probably been much better given my experience of house prices in the town.

santashelper_2

I live near portishead and never understood why when they started to build more houses did not widen the main road going into portishead it has always been quite a busy road but the only have one type of major road with single file traffic going into a town that has increased by size this surely does not make any sense.

nollag2006

No response from Willie Fox.

Might be putting my X elsewhere in the next election !!!

A_Nice_Englishman

See the West of England Joint Local Transport Plan

http://www.westofengland.org/site/FinalJointLocalTransportPlan200607201011_2870.asp

and in particular

http://www.westofengland.org/downloads/supportdoc-12.pdf

Basically, they are vaguely thinking that they might consider doing something some time after 2011. I wouldn't hold my breath!