Negotiations over the possible purchase of the Epping-Ongar railway line by Essex County Council are back, just weeks after the council said it was pulling out because it could not afford the likely cost of the line.

The issue was raised in the House of Commons by Epping Forest MP Eleanor Laing who said the community was "on the verge of losing it for ever".

A meeting scheduled to take place last week between Transport Minister David Jamieson and the district's three MPs Mrs Laing, Brentwood and Ongar's Eric Pickles and Nazeing, Roydon and Sheering MP Bill Rammell was postponed, because Mr Jamieson is awaiting a report from London Underground.

A new date has been set for next month.

But news of the fresh talks involving the county council and the line's owner, Epping Ongar Railway came at a meeting between district, county and parish councillors, and district council officers.

The county council had said it could come up with £500,000, but it was expected that through arbitration, the purchase price for the line could be about £1.2m.

Epping Forest Council chief executive John Burgess said: "Everyone at the meeting appreciated the very difficult position the county council is in. Everyone at the table last Wednesday had previously fought against the original sale.

"None of us like the position we have been forced into but we have to deal with the situation as best we can."

He added: "Clearly we all feel the Government must take some responsibility and help to resolve the issue, particularly now that its own transport planners are consulting on long-term proposals for new rail links between London and East Anglia which specifically mention the Epping-Ongar line.

"We believe the future of the line is too important both locally and regionally for the Government to stand aside or allow it to be lost for ever."

Mrs Laing, speaking during a House of Commons debate on the funding and management of London Underground, said Glenda Jackson, who was transport minister at the time of the rail sale to Pilot Developments, had promised that the land on which the line used to run "would be preserved as railway land in perpetuity".

Mrs Laing added: "Yet the contract entered into, presumably with Treasury backing, failed to protect that land and we are now on the verge of losing it for ever and thus being unable to resurrect a railway there.

"The Government say they are committed to expanding public transport, yet in this case they have diminished it."