Kentish Gazette Canterbury & District
Council doubts viability of another railway station
The city council remains lukewarm to the idea of a new Canterbury South railway station next to the Mountfield Park development, says its leader.
Cllr Simon Cook told the Gazette this week that the authority did not want to make promises it could not keep and doubts the viability of a new station – which Network Rail says would cost £10m to create.
Earlier this month residents’ associations in the south of the city called for the station at Bekesbourne to be moved about a mile north to Mountfield Park as a way of helping to alleviate traffic problems when the development is built.
Letters to the Gazette reveal there is support as well as opposition for a new station. But Cllr Cook says the authority is taking a neutral stance. “It’s not something for us to lead on as that would be down to Network Rail,” the Conservative said.
“There’s the question of cost as well, the £10m needed to make it. We’ve got to be realistic about where the money for moving the station would come from because it wouldn’t be from us. The developers have already made contributions towards the new junction at the A2 and we can’t make promises to people that we aren’t going to be able to keep. There’s also the issue that the station would be on one side of the development because that’s where the railway line is, but for a lot of people at Mountfield that is going to be quite far from their homes.”
Supporters of a Canterbury South station connecting to Canterbury East believe it could help reduce traffic movements in south Canterbury.
John Pike, of the St Augustine’s Road Residents’ Association, argues that a development so closely linked to public transport could be a selling point for homes at the development.