Community 'in limbo' over railway station project

A community has been left "in limbo" because of uncertainty around a £15m project to reopen a railway station, a councillor has said.

Meir Railway Station in Stoke-on-Trent, which closed in 1966, was among the projects included in the previous government's Restoring Your Railway (RYR) programme, which was scrapped after Labour took power last year.

The government said the individual projects would be reviewed, but councillors and residents have since raised concerns over the lack of a decision on the Meir scheme.

The Department for Transport (DfT) said the projects would be considered as part of next month's Spending Review.

More than 570 people have since signed a petition calling for Stoke-on-Trent City Council to lobby the government to approve the station's reopening.

Conservative councillor Faisal Hussain told the authority's housing, regeneration and operations scrutiny committee the scheme was feasible and would help to address Meir's transport issues.

"When the Chancellor made her speech on the cancellation of Restoring Your Railway, she did say she would look at each individual scheme and make a decision based on progression," he told Thursday's meeting.

"She left us all in limbo as to what that meant."

The Meir South representative urged the Labour-led council to ask the government to "rethink its decision and restore funding for Meir Station".

Labour councillor Finlay Gordon-McCusker said the RYR was a "great aspiration", but described it as a "pipe dream" under the previous Conservative government.

"We share your aspiration to have Meir station reopened but we're in the same situation as the previous administration - we can't do it alone and we need the funding," he said.

The council wrote a letter to the government in March asking for a final decision on the project and Mr Gordon-McCusker agreed to write a second letter.

A DfT spokesperson said it was committed to delivering transport infrastructure that would "boost growth and opportunity" across the country.

"The government inherited an extremely challenging financial position, and these projects will be considered as part of the upcoming Spending Review," they said.

This news was gathered by the Local Democracy Reporting Service which covers councils and other public service organisations.

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