Thatcham Town Council bid for Great Western Railway funding for pedestrian signage in Thatcham fails

Thatcham Town Council’s application for its train station funding has failed.

The council applied to Great Western Railway (GWR) for funding for pedestrian signing.

This is a part of Great Western Railway’s Customer and Community Improvement Fund initiative.

These waymarking signs were hoped to help commuters make their way from Thatcham train station to the town centre.

The council called it an unusual route.

Thatcham Town Council was told that its project will not be funded as there was a great breadth and quality of bids from applicants this year.

The council’s plan was to use existing lighting columns and sign posts to place arrow.

These ‘finger pointers’ were to be placed in areas where the route has a change of direction that is not obvious.

Elsewhere the route was hoped to be marked with stickers.

It wanted the first ‘pointer’ at the railway station along with an information post.

The estimated total cost was £6,000, with £3,500 for the signs and £2,500 for installation costs – this was subject to a quotation from a highways contractor.

West Berkshire Council had also agreed in principle to the signage project.

But it needed to undertake a detailed survey to confirm the suitability of the proposed posts and lighting columns.

GWR is hopeful that funding will be available again next year.