Station revamp won’t include disabled access
Twm Owen, local democracy reporter
Plans to upgrade Chepstow railway station are set to be outlined later this month but the revamp won’t include new disabled access.
Previously announced cash from the UK government could be used to provide toilets and a waiting room at the station as well as improved footpaths leading to the station and potentially an expanded car park.
The previous UK government announced £5m for improvements to Chepstow rail station in its November 2023 autumn spending statement but Monmouthshire County Council’s deputy leader Paul Griffiths said that was only for a limited project related to the car park.
The Labour councillor, who represents the town’s Castle and Larkfield ward, said: “That was limited to providing opportunities for buses to turn around at Chepstow station, and included the consequential loss of car parking spaces.”
Cllr Griffiths said the council has sought to “expand the remit of the original allocation” to develop the station as “a hub to attract travellers and businesses to Chepstow” and it has been agreed the government funding can be “flexed” to include the further enhancements.
He added: “It could also be flexed potentially to include access to land for improved car parking.”
Match funding
A report outlining the investment plan, and seeking the council’s approval for it to provide match funding, will be brought to the council’s July meeting, said Cllr Griffiths who was responding to Chepstow Mount Pleasant member Paul Pavia.
Conservative Cllr Pavia said the update “seemed really positive” but said Network Rail, which is responsible for the station, is “still in breach of the disability discrimination act” as it hasn’t addressed access to its westbound platform.
He said in 2020 Network Rail had told a council committee the issue wouldn’t be addressed until 2025: “Well 2025 is here and it’s still not addressed.”
He suggested land adjacent to the westbound platform could be used for parking and for access.
Disabled access
Cllr Griffiths said he “unfortunately” couldn’t give a commitment for a disabled access as he had to accept it wouldn’t be possible to get an agreement from Network Rail to the same timeframe for spending the money from the UK government.
Network Rail has a programme for access improvements, which has included Abergavenny, but it hasn’t yet got a date for Chepstow, said Cllr Griffiths who added: “I look lustfully at the barely used land beside the west bound platform.”
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The council needs to add some cash to the pot to get this done properly.
What no disabled access & no disabled toilets. Disgraceful.
Under the new Social Security arrangements it appears that there will be less disabled people, so perhaps the need will not arrive.
No government funding should be provided to any transportation project unless there is effective and integrated provision for disabled people. ‘Design for all’ should be the mantra. There should never be any right to lock out parents with pushchairs, children, elderly people or disabled people from any public facility. In work I did as a research student in the 1990s, I demonstrated that step-free access to London Underground, though a difficult challenge, would return far more than it cost. Equity is essential in the life we provide for each other, and the design standards utilised by Transport for Wales must… Read more »