County buries Parkway bid

GLOUCESTERSHIRE County Council today submits its final bid for government money for the ‘Integrated Transport Elmbridge Court’ or ITEC scheme – and it doesn’t include the controversial plan for a Parkway station on Green Belt land near the Elmbridge Court roundabout between Cheltenham and Gloucester. Cheltenham MP Martin Horwood, who has been campaigning against the Parkway plan since 2005, welcomed the news: ‘This is a very sensible move by the county. I’m delighted that the Parkway plan has been quietly but finally laid to rest. The station threatened the future of Cheltenham Spa station and would have meant Cheltenham having to drive down the A40 to catch the train. It would have been bad for Cheltenham, bad for the environment and bad for rail travellers.’

The plan for improved roads and public transport initially attracted all-party support but became controversial in 2005 when a business plan was produced that made clear the case for the Parkway station element of the scheme was based on a reduction of services at the existing Cheltenham Spa and Gloucester stations. The plan was supported by then Gloucester Labour MP Parmjit Dhanda and by the county council’s Conservative administration. But Cheltenham Tories and many rail users from Gloucester as well as Cheltenham soon backed Martin’s campaign, as did high profile figures like Jonathon Porritt. Martin urged the county to switch its attention to other rail improvements like the redoubling of the Swindon-Kemble line.

In 2007 the Department for Transport rejected the scheme which has since been redrafted without the Parkway station element. The second and final part of the bid is being submitted to government today. There was a brief resumption of the campaign when then county councillor, now Euro MP, Julie Girling., said she thought the Parkway bid could be revived at a later stage. But today’s bid effectively means it is dead and buried.

‘We thought we had won this campaign some years ago’ said Martin ‘but it is reassuring to know that it’s really over now. The joint campaign for the redoubling of the Swindon-Kemble line succeeded this year as well and just shows what we can achieve in Gloucestershire when we work together.’