Kentish Express Ashford & District
Temporary bridge eases campaigners safety fears
People will not have to use foot crossing
A temporary footbridge has been built to replace a dangerous crossing at a rural village’s railway station.
The interim structure at Hamstreet station has been put in place after safety concerns were raised about the foot crossing.
A spokesman for Network Rail said work on a permanent bridge over the railway is ongoing but it will be open “imminently”.
Residents have been campaigning for a safer crossing for years, expressing fears that the pedestrian access point across the rail lines has no gates or stop lights and relies on people looking out for approaching trains
Cllr Peter Davison (Ash Ind) whose Weald South ward borders with Hamstreet, is among those who have highlighted the and campaigned for a bridge. He has welcomed the construction of the new crossing.
He said: “The issue of the dangerous crossing was first raised as far back as 1991 but it is really over the last five years that we have been pressuring to have something done.
“We proposed that the bridge was the best answer to the problem but back then Network Rail said they could not fund it.”
In 2013, the Office of Rail Regulation (ORR) announced it would provide £70 million to close “high risk” crossings across the country and improve the safety of hundreds more.
The foot crossing at Hamstreet Station is similar to the Elsenham crossing in Essex where two teenage girls were killed in 2005.
Cllr Davison continued: “The Parish Council is particularly pleased that something has finally been done about the safety issue and in my opinion the bridge is the safest solution.”
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