SWR say Pokesdown Station upgrades will 'take longer to deliver'

The train company is to host a rescheduled meeting on Wednesday, July 1, following the completion of a technical report.

Cllr Andy Hadley, the Portfolio Holder for Transport, is due to be in attendance at the meeting.

A spokesperson for SWR said: “SWR is committed to making the railway as accessible as possible through both physical improvements, including smaller schemes such as new handrails, and supporting measures such as the ongoing boarding points trial and the new sunflower lanyard scheme’

“Other more structural improvements to the railway take longer to deliver, but we are committed to improving the accessibility of Pokesdown station and, as promised, will be updating BCP Council on the latest position following the completion of a technical report in early July.

“This had been expected to be at the end of May but has been delayed by Covid-19 like many projects around the country.”

Although BCP Council are to be represented at the upcoming meeting, ward councillors for Boscombe East and Pokesdown Cllrs Andy Jones and George Farquhar, who have both been campaign for new lifts at the station for numerous years, were left unaware.

Having chaired meetings about the station since 2011, Cllr Andy Jones feels as though he should be present to represent the residents of Boscombe and Pokesdown.

Cllr Andy Jones said: “Cllr Andy Hadley may have been made aware of it but myself and Cllr Farquhar, the ward councillors for the area, had no idea a meeting was due to take place.

“It is frustrating, it seems like it is two steps forward and one step back. I hope they are able to provide any update from this meeting for me to give to people because people deserve to know what is going on.

“If they are able to provide a project plan with estimated completion dates, it will give people something to go off or at least show them that things are going in the right direction.”