Bridge over railway line too expensive

Councillors say station congestion still on agenda but officers admit there is not other solution

THATCHAM'S Conservative councillors have been accused of dropping one of their key election pledges, just three months after taking seats on West Berkshire Council.

Members of the Liberal Democrats and Labour have claimed that the Tories pledged to look into the problem of congestion around Thatcham railway station in the pre-election leaflets.

Traffic builds up owing to the level crossing on one of the main commuter road routes.

Newbury Labour Party spokesman, Richard Garvie, who lives in Thatcham, said that he was disappointed that the council had dropped plans to address congestion at Thatcham railway station, despite promising to look “far and wide” to come up with a solution.

Despite the member for highways and transport, David Betts (Con, Purley-on Thames) saying that the ward members were working with him and council officers to see what, if anything, could be done, a letter from the district council to Mr Garvie seemed to suggest that the issue was no longer on the agenda.

The scrutiny and partnerships manager, David Lowe, said that the only way the problem could be solved was to build a bridge over the railway line, but that was too expensive.

He said: “Peak-time commuter traffic movements also coincide with peak-time commuter rail movements and consequently delays can be lengthy at these times resulting in queueing traffic in the general area of the station.

“There is nothing that the highway authority can do to resolve this problem while there is a level crossing at this location.”

Talking about the possibility of a road bridge over the railway line, he said: “This would be extremely expensive and there is unfortunately no likelihood in the foreseeable future of the council being able to fund such an expensive proposal.”

Mr Garvie said that he believed the district council had given up looking for a solution.

He said: “The congestion at the station is one of the big issues in that area of town, and for the wider community too.

“The Conservatives made a big pledge to look far and wide at potential solutions, but now they have simply given up on the idea that anything can be done.”

His view was echoed by Thatcham West district councillor and shadow portfolio member for highways and transport, Keith Woodhams (Lib Dem), who said: “I have never seen anything in the transport policy or discussion groups about sorting out the traffic problems. It has been like

this for years.”

However, the Conservative ward members for the area, Dominic Boeck and Roger Croft, insisted that the issue was still being looked into, saying: “There's always going to be congestion at any pinpoint but we are going to do what we can within the constraints of the budget to make improvements in the area.

“We want to make small and practical solutions and many of them.

“During the election campaign, knowing that the chance of a bridge being built over the level crossing was nil in today's economic climate, we said that we would look wide for solutions to the congestion problem.

“We are doing that. That was our original commitment and still is.”