Urgent improvement wanted for rail station

CAMPAIGNERS are increasing their calls for improvements at Mirfield Railway Station, the only station in Kirklees with a direct train to London.

The latest high-profile visitor to view the site is Amjad Bashir, MEP for Yorkshire and the Humber and Conservative spokesman on small business in the European Parliament.

He was invited to see the station by Kirklees councillor Martyn Bolt, a long-standing campaigner for much-needed improvements to parking and passenger access at Mirfield.

The station is the third busiest in Kirklees behind Huddersfield and Dewsbury with 400,000 passengers a year.

Vowing to raise the issue with Secretary of State for Transport Chris Grayling, Mr Bashir said: “With a bit of vision and urgency, this station could become a huge asset to the network and the local community instead of being the problem child.”

He also urged transport authorities to stop dragging their feet and fix the chronic problems, such as the lack of available spaces in the station car park, which has fewer than 40 but demand for more than 200, and on-street parking on Hopton New Road and Back Station Road.

That particular bottleneck has led to a number of stand-offs as only one car can get through at a time with cars parked on both sides of Hopton New Road.

The situation has been eased by the installation of yellow lines to create ‘passing places.’

Problems with on-street parking intensified since Grand Central introduced a direct service to London in 2012.

The station’s Huddersfield-bound platform is accessible for disabled people or those with prams, but the East-bound “island platform” to Leeds, Wakefield and London can only be reached by 29 steep steps. In addition, the station has no ticket machines and no toilets.

Clr Bolt has called for the adjacent site of a former Lidl store on Station Road to become a car park – at least on a temporary basis – and has secured the agreement of the landowner.

He says the various agencies controlling the station – including West Yorkshire Combined Authority, Network Rail and the train companies – have failed to agree on a plan to end the problems.

A £2 million pot earmarked by the combined authority for upgrading the station remains unspent.

Mr Bashir adds his voice to those of Wakefield MP Mary Creagh, who visited in 2014 when she was Shadow Secretary of State for Transport, and Dewsbury and Mirfield MP Paula Sherriff.

Mr Bashir said: “There has been too much talk and too little action here.

“The various parties must stop their feet-dragging and make a priority of sorting out this Cinderella station. I shall be writing to the Transport Secretary to ask what can be done to unblock the log jam.”