Bedford Borough Council has unanimously supported a motion by local councillors to oppose the relocation of a multi-storey car park at Bedford station as part of the East West Rail project.
At the Full Council meeting on Wednesday (4 February), the councillors from Queen’s Park presented a petition signed by 692 residents, calling for the proposed car park’s location, from the east to the west of the station, to be reconsidered.
An eight-storey car park, accessed from Ashburnham Road to the east of the station, had originally been proposed by EWR.
The new plans would see the car park located off Ford End Road in Queen’s Park, to the west of the station.
Cllr Nesreen Akhtar (Labour, Queen’s Park ward) proposed a motion, which had been circulated to all councillors beforehand, asking that the Executive oppose the construction of any multi-storey car park in Queen’s Park unless East West Rail committed to fully funded traffic mitigation measures.
The motion stated the measures should be agreed in consultation with the Council and local residents and provide clear infrastructure benefits for Queens Park and significant investment in traffic management and transport infrastructure within Queens Park and the surrounding area, including Ashburnham Road.
The motion asked the Executive to write to the chief executive of EWR requesting traffic modelling and the rationale for relocating the multi-storey car park, and to formally register the Council’s objection to the proposed site.
Cllr Akhtar said that Queen’s Park Councillors were not notified or consulted about this multi-storey car park proposal prior to publication of the ‘You Said, We Did’ report, despite the Western Entrance and car park directly affecting their Ward.
Seconding the motion, cllr Mohammed Masud (Labour, Queen’s Park ward) pointed out that there were plans for further housebuilding of 600 properties in Queen’s Park right next to the proposed car park, which would mean an increase in traffic anyway, and that residents were already fed up with congestion in this area.
He said: “The addition of a multi-storey car park for the new station would bring more cars into the area and would result in gridlock.
“Siting the car park here is just not practical, and if EWR had consulted with us as local councillors, we could have warned them this idea simply would not work.”
“Good ammunition to fire at East West Rail”
The motion received unanimous support from across the political spectrum.
Bedford’s elected mayor, Tom Wootton (Conservative), said he was very grateful to the Queen’s Park councillors for taking the concerns of their residents seriously.
After agreeing to support the motion, he said: “This gives us good ammunition to fire at East West Rail at our next meeting with them.
“I will repeat this to the boss of EWR, and hopefully we will get some reaction this time.”
“Ambitious plans”
Defending the relocation plans, Natalie Wheble, external affairs director at East West Railway Company, said: “Relocating the proposed new multi-storey car park to Ford End Road from Ashburnham Road will reduce the visual impact for those residents who live close to the station.
“The relocation of the car park also complements our more ambitious plans to redevelop Bedford station, which will ensure the station can deliver the much-needed extra capacity to meet rising passenger demands.
“Our designs for a Ford End Road multi-storey will, of course, also take account of extensive traffic modelling work which is currently being assessed.
“We continue to hold regular meetings with Bedford Borough Council and we’ll also be holding a series of Design Update Sessions in Bedford later this month, which will allow the public and stakeholders to discuss our plans with our team of experts.”
She said that representatives of EWR would return to Bedford in the Spring to launch the latest stage of consultations.
“We will present our latest designs and invite feedback on our proposals,” she said.
