Pokesdown Station: Council formally agrees to help fund revamp

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

A council has formally agreed to fund renovation work at a train station which has no disabled access.

About 350,000 passengers use Pokesdown Station in Bournemouth a year, and it has been at the centre of a decade-long campaign to improve its accessibility.

Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole (BCP) Council said it would pay up to £2.6m of £5.7m work.

It will help replace goods-only lifts with passenger lifts and pay for "much needed modernisation" at the station.

At least two people have reported broken bones after falling on steep steps at the station.

Mike Greene, the council's portfolio member for sustainability and transport, said the renovation would prove a "win-win-win".

Calls to improve the station have also been made by Tobias Ellwood, MP for Bournemouth East, over a number of years.

He presented a 1,200-signature petition to the then Prime Minister David Cameron in 2014.

South Western Railway (SWR) had been due to reinstall lifts there by December 2019 as part of its rail franchise agreement.

SWR said previously that degradation of lift shafts meant work would cost more than the £1.6m it had initially allocated for the project.

It will contribute £1.6m and Network Rail a further £1.5m. The local authority's money will be taken from its £50m Futures Fund.

Stephen Bartlett, an independent councillor, asked a BCP Council cabinet meeting why the council tax payer would need to pay for an asset that it does not own.

Mr Greene added: "For me, because it's good and the right thing to do in pursuit of sustainable transport and in tackling the congestion that comes from that.

"It's good for our fight against climate change and for those who cannot access the station."