£2million puts Kenilworth station on the right track
COUNCILLORS have allocated £2million from the budget to help rebuild Kenilworth’s train station in anticipation that a government funding bid will be accepted this spring.
Warwickshire County Council set aside the sum to restore the station on Priory Road and bring the town’s tracks back to life if they are successful in a new stations funding bid.
Under the scheme the Government will pay 75 per cent of costs to build new stations or resurrect those scrapped decades ago.
County councillor John Whitehouse (Lib Dem, Abbey) who has been working to restore the station for over a decade, explained that £2million is the estimated council contribution to seal the deal after work already done to secure planning permission and push ahead with designs.
“The total needed for the build is considerably larger than that but that sum is the remaining contribution we think we will need to make,” he said.
“We are in a position to go ahead, there is planning permission, rail companies are on board. It is simply about securing the money now which we are very hopeful about doing.”
The final bid will be submitted over the next few weeks and considered by the a cross-industry panel at the Department for Transport which is expected to make recommendations before April.
And hopes are higher than ever after Patrick McLoughlin, transport secretary, announced £20million would go towards rail services in smaller towns and Kenilworth was named as a prime example project.
Cllr Peter Butlin (Con), portfolio holder for transport, explained that the scheme was ‘shovel ready’, they are in a position to immediately deliver the station project if funds come in.
The plans have been in the pipeline for years but never got off the ground after previous unsuccessful funding bids.
Network Rail and train providers are on board and the site already has outline planning permission.
In January it was announced that the line through Kenilworth will be made double track as part of electrification work across the UK’s railways.
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Weather for Kenilworth
Wednesday 22 May 2013
Today
Cloudy
Temperature: 4 C to 14 C
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