I hope the Friends of Carnforth Station will continue to supply you with their memories, knowledge and views. Some of the recent letters do, however, demonstrate that amongst some of the friends there is a misunderstanding of the Trust's intentions and proposals for the Station and possibly of the constraints under which the Trust is working. The Trust is a Conservation Body and not specifically a Preservation Body.
Conservation means the adaptation of existing resources to meet the needs of modem society.
The Trust's intention is not to demolish the buildings but to put them into good structural condition and into a mixture of activities which will use the above resources for the benefit of the people of Carnforth and its surrounding areas and by these means retain the buildings. The Trust in signing a lease with Railtrack will be entering into a long term commitment to maintain and use the buildings. The buildings will have to produce an income to ensure that the Trust can maintain the buildings and meet its lease obligations. The Feasibility Study found that at least 40,000 visitors will have to be attracted to Carnforth Station every year for the project to be viable, the Refreshment Room will have to be capable of catering for at least one coach load of visitors in one sitting and the Visitor Centre needs to be of at least 400 s.m to generate interest. These outputs are measured in terms of jobs created in the Station and the number of visitors attracted to Carnforth.