Pokesdown station: Council to help fund lifts and revamp

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Pokesdown station
Image caption,

Passengers have to negotiate 42 steep steps between the platforms and street level

A council has said it will help fund work to install lifts at a train station which has no disabled access.

Pokesdown station in Bournemouth has been at the centre of a decade-long campaign for improved accessibility.

South Western Railway (SWR), which had been due to reinstate lifts as part of its franchise agreement, said £1.6m allocated for the work was not enough.

Bournemouth Christchurch and Poole Council said part of its new £50m fund would allow work to finally begin.

In an online Q&A session, deputy council leader Phil Broadhead said: "We have created something called a £50m Futures Fund.

"We've got £40m of savings that we're achieving over the next few years and that's released the ability to have some extra borrowing, so that we can do stuff with that Futures Fund.

"This week we will be announcing, finally, that we're able to make Pokesdown station an accessible station with new lifts and a station refurb, that we're partly funding through the money we've managed to create."

'Fuzzy announcements'

Campaigner and local resident Ben Smith, who is a wheelchair user, welcomed the news but added: "It's something that was committed to in the spring and we've had lots of commitments in the past.

"There was a contracted agreement in the franchise that was not carried through.

"We need it to happen - not fuzzy announcements, which is all we've had."

The Office of Road and Rail, which regulates safety for the rail network, said there had been four serious accidents at the station since 2005, involving people needing immediate hospital treatment after falling down the stairs.

An SWR spokesman said: "These incidents reinforce the need for accessibility improvements at the station, which we are working hard to secure."

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