ROLONGED cheering in a packed Crowcombe village hall last Saturday greeted the news that a West Somerset Railway Association Reform Group general meeting had voted out the association’s existing officers and trustees by 1674 votes to 67.

It was the latest twist in a bitter struggle for control of the 6,000-member West Somerset Railway support association which has been split into two warring factions for the past year

At the Crowcombe meeting, chairman Frank Courtney, who had been sacked by the previous trustees, was reinstated along with trustee Michael Rowe.

A group of temporary trustees was co-opted into office until the AGM in July when the process to appoint new permanent trustees will begin.

But with both sides refusing to accept the existence of the other, the original trustees insist they are still in control of the association, that the Crowcombe meeting was unlawful, and say that police will be called if the alternative trustees attempt to enter WSRA premises.

And both sets of trustees plan to report the other to the Charity Commission.