Step-free, disabled access and better maintenance at Sandbach Railway Station are being called for in a petition that has already garnered more than 1,000 signatures.
Colin Storey, who launched the petition, told the “Chronicle”: “I use Sandbach station occasionally to go to Manchester Airport, but I can’t carry suitcases up the stairs because of my health problems. So I have to get a train to Crewe to come back through Sandbach to get to the airport.
“With Labour’s plans to relax planning laws so any prospective planning application within a mile radius of a travel hub would be more easily approved, potentially up to 3,000 new houses in Sandbach would benefit from disabled access at the station.
“It would predominantly be young, working families who would buy new-build properties, and they would be commuting to Manchester, Liverpool, Leeds, Birmingham, and even London.”
Mr Storey, who is a Blue Badge holder, said he submitted a freedom of information (FOI) request to Cheshire East Council last year.
The FOI outlined that within a mile radius of Sandbach station, there were 721 people who could not use the station to travel to Manchester, due to the lack of disabled access.
It also said that the average cost to put a lift on platforms was between £2 and £5 million.
As previously reported in the “Chronicle”, Congleton MP Sarah Russell re-raised the issue of accessibility at Sandbach Railway Station with central Government in June, a situation which she described as “disastrous.”
She said: “It’s a huge problem for anyone who can’t manage the extremely steep stairs. This is a service that runs to a major city and an airport, so people, by definition, have luggage and buggies.”
A new direct service between the Midlands and Manchester Airport was recently announced, stopping at Sandbach.
A report published by Soroptimist International Great Britain and Ireland in June found that disability provisions were reported at 65% of stations, with 35% of stations not providing disabled access.
The Railway Station Safety Survey added that “step-free access between platforms is absent at a very significant minority of stations”, and named Sandbach as one of these.
Mr Storey said: “It just makes absolute sense to me to take people off the roads. Potentially, 2,000 houses being built in Sandbach would be 4,000 cars.
“We do need more social, affordable housing as long as we’ve got the infrastructure to support it.”
Mr Storey said that as well as local support, people “as far as London and even Edinburgh” had signed the petition, which had nearly 1,200 signatures at the time of writing.
He also said: “People are saying that the bridge over the station is rusted and has fallen to bits. So the station needs to be maintained, particularly if folks remember Labour’s policies about bringing these sorts of services back to public control, public ownership, then they should be investing in it.”
The petition can be accessed via tinyurl.com/4n93k8n2 (Photo: Google Maps).
