Plans for city train station ‘uninspiring’ (From Evesham Journal)
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Plans for city train station ‘uninspiring’
1:50pm Saturday 22nd September 2012 in News By Tom Edwards
CRITICISM: An artist’s drawing of how Foregate Street rail station could look.
A £785,000 revamp of Foregate Street railway station has been panned by Worcester City Council has “bland” and “uninspiring”.
The council’s planning committee said it was “a missed opportunity” and called it a “small, tokenist attempt” to bring the site into the 21st century.
As your Worcester News revealed in June, Worcestershire County Council has secured Government cash to spruce up the station.
The plan includes the replacement of the existing 1970s canopies, automatic doors to both entrances, better cycle storage facilities, new customer service screens and a lick of paint.
But a report by Alan Coleman, a senior planning officer, says the scheme is “architecturally uninspiring” and is not good enough for a key gateway into the city. Committee members agreed and have voted in favour of passing the critique onto the county council.
Worcester mayor Councillor Roger Berry said: “This station desperately needs upgrading, but this is just a small, tokenist attempt to improve it.
“It’s a very important, key part of the city and over the last few years the number of passengers has massively increased – it deserves better than this.”
Coun David Wilkinson, the council’s heritage champion, said: “These are small cosmetic improvements, but we wanted more.
“The station is not the most friendly of environments, so this is a real missed opportunity for me.”
Councillors criticised the appearance of a corrugated iron shed next to the main entrance, which will not be replaced, and lamented the planned new cladding as “average”.
Coun Derek Prodger said: “When you walk up Foregate Street the first thing you see is the bridge, it is the real feature of the station. It’s sad that it has been neglected and a travesty it won’t be upgraded.”
The money for the revamp has come from the Gover-nment and London Midland, and Worcestershire County Council ’s planning committee will be tasked with making a final decision in November or December. A consultation period lasts until Thursday.
To get involved, log onto worcestershire.gov.uk/pub licaccess or visit County Hall and ask for planning application 12/00054/REG3.
Comments(15)
Samboy
says...
1:57pm Sat 22 Sep 12
DeBrian Thronker
says...
3:02pm Sat 22 Sep 12
CJH
says...
3:30pm Sat 22 Sep 12
Maggie Would
says...
3:49pm Sat 22 Sep 12
DeBrian Thronker wrote:Are you qualified to state with certainty that you could build a whole railway station for £785k?
I can't quite fathom how the listed improvements will cost £785,000. It is evident that somebody somewhere is making a lot of money by doing not very much, because by my reckoning the work they have proposed will cost £190,000. With 3 quarters of a million you could practically build a whole new train station!
By my reckoning, a whole new station in a city centre position, including track and bridge renewal, traffic management, new station buildings and gold paint (to please CJH) would be in the region of £50 million.
As a benchmark for admittedly a larger station, the new station at Woolwich on the Crossrail development in London is costing £200 million.
John Herbert Smith
says...
4:45pm Sat 22 Sep 12
The station also needs renaming "Worcester Central".
CJH
says...
4:55pm Sat 22 Sep 12
John Herbert Smith wrote:Why on earth does it need renaming? It's in Foregate Street. Therefore it is Foregate St Station. And why would the station need all the street level space that the old post office occupied? The track is not at street level is it?
Why oh why did they let TESCO'S open in the old Post Office? It could have been part of a much enlarged station concourse; plus Good News would still be with us. The station also needs renaming "Worcester Central".
blueworcs
says...
4:56pm Sat 22 Sep 12
CJH
says...
6:16pm Sat 22 Sep 12
blueworcs wrote:It hasn't been started. It still has to have final approval. Read the article.
Why has this been said NOW and not before when the work started, did our representatives on the council not see the plans beforehand? Or were they too busy granting yet another Tesco planning application......
Andy1955
says...
9:22am Sun 23 Sep 12
longpete
says...
11:10am Sun 23 Sep 12
Andy1955 wrote:Network Rail, taxpayer-owned, is responsible for the infrastructure.
If the rail service is privatized, why oh why do WE have to pay for the upgrade? Surly it should be the companies responsibility!..
And Tom Edwards, they voted to pass the critique "on to" the county council not "onto" it, from the verb "pass on".
Jabbadad
says...
11:27am Sun 23 Sep 12
Those who comment should also recall that Shrub Hill refurb cost over a £million and when you look for it, can you see the changes there?, And we still have the hideous office block there, (not owned by the railways I believe.), but the refurb was deeply influenced by conservationists. So no GONG there.
daned
says...
6:34pm Sun 23 Sep 12
If the work has not yet started why are there signs of massive works already going on?
thesquirrel
says...
7:00pm Sun 23 Sep 12
Jabbadad
says...
11:40pm Sun 23 Sep 12
The Doosra
says...
8:18pm Tue 25 Sep 12
thesquirrel wrote:Utter rubbish - if one of the stations had to close it would be Shrub Hill as Foregate Street is much closer to the City Centre.
Close down Foregate St and let's have a much improved Shrub Hill minus Elgar House. The city doesn't need two stations.
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