After a long, long delay we finally received the news today that the application for funding for the station has been rejected by the UK Government. This is because, we believe, the costs in the application from the Welsh Government were too high. Looking at those application documents it is clear that those estimated costs when compared to say St Clears, were inflated by what we believe were unnecessary and expensive infrastructure around the new platform. This meant that the cost for the single platform proposal for Carno was significantly more than the two-line, two platform station at St Clears. In our view this gave the application for Carno little chance of success and we deeply regret not being involved in the preparation of those documents before the funding application was made.
Having said that, this is the furthest the campaign has ever got, and we have been told by the UK Department for Transport that this unsuccessful bid will not stop further bids when future funding becomes available. Whilst very disappointed with todays announcement, we look forward to working with the Welsh Government, Craig Williams MP, and Russell George MS, to produce a new station proposal which will allow us to provide this much needed resource to the residents of Carno and the surrounding area.