A PLANNING application for a proposed new railway station in Wellington could be submitted within months.

Taunton Deane MP Rebecca Pow has visited the site earmarked for the facility.

Ms Pow met the developer at the chosen location adjacent to the Longforth Farm estate.

Local people have already been asked for their comments on the proposals and Ms Pow was on site to talk to the developer, Chris Winter, to discuss the plans.

She said the planning application for the wider development on the site adjacent to the Longforth Farm Estate is being prepared now in close liaison with Network Rail.

She added that the aim is to submit the application to the planning authority in the autumn.

Ms Pow said: “I had an informative meeting and walk around the proposed site of the Wellington Rail Station with developer Chris Winter.

"I have championed this project and have been working constructively with all stakeholders and it is welcome news that the planning application may be submitted this autumn.

"I pledged to work to bring a rail station to Wellington when I was first elected to Parliament in 2015 and this is genuinely exciting progress.

"I am proud to be part of the team that is bringing this forward and I shall continue to play my role, in particular as the link between activity on the ground in the constituency and the Department of Transport in Westminster.”

Earlier this year, Network Rail said the first trains could stop at a new Wellington Station as early as 2025.

The rail company hopes to have developed a detailed design for the station and a full business case to submit to the Department for Transport before the end of December 2023.

Subject to government approval, construction could begin in 2024, with Wellington Station, as well as a new one for Cullompton, potentially in operation by 2025.

Both stations would serve the Great Western mainline from London Paddington to Penzance and would sit either side of Tiverton Parkway Station.

Wellington and Cullompton Stations were closed in 1964 as part of the 'Beeching Axe' but are now the largest settlements without a rail station between Taunton and Exeter.

Network Rail has taken over the lead role in the project to build the two stations following receipt of £5million from the DoT.