RAIL enthusiasts are hoping to meet with a businessman who shattered their plans to buy a piece of land vital to a project to create a railway network.
Norfolk Orbital Railway had raised £7,500 to buy the land in Pudding Norton at auction and appealed for others not to bid against them.
On Tuesday, businessman Giles de Lotbiniere, turned up and bid £12,000, reportedly on a whim having only spotte
d the unusual 3.5 acre site for sale the day before. The land, including a bridge of three brick arches over the River Wensum, had been valued at between £3,000 and £5,000.
Norfolk Orbital Railway chairman David Rees said: "We were just flabbergasted. We thought we had got it buttoned up.
"We are very disappointed and surprised it went the way it did.
"The land is not really worth very much to anybody as it is protected for railway use and there is no vehicular access to it."
Norfolk Orbital Railway has invested ten years of work into studies and research over the potential of regenerating rail links in a project that would link Fakenham to Holt and Dereham.
Mr Rees said while this would have been the first acquisition in the road to making it happen, the project is not scuppered.
He said: "The project continues. That land is protected. Somebody has bought it but they can't build a house on it or build a Tesco supermarket on it."
Mr Rees said he now hopes to set up a meeting with Mr de Lotbiniere to find a way forward.
Mr de Lotbiniere, managing director of Brandon-based concrete and masonry company Lignacite, was not available for comment.
