Friend of Irlam station
When local residents contacted the council, they were concerned about the neglect and deterioration of the Irlam railway station, and wanted a greater say in the rail timetables. That’s when the idea of a "Friends of" group was first discussed.
Developing the group to really make a difference to the station and surrounding area required a range of stakeholders to be brought together. The station itself is split between three owners. Network Rail owns the track and platform. Northern rail lease it from Network Rail and are responsible for providing the train service and maintaining the station facilities. A local property developer owns the old station building and adjacent land.
The neighbourhood team has helped in building these contacts and networks, helping to bring together the contributions from a wide range of partners. In turn, all the stakeholders have been very supportive of the friends group and helped them achieve several successes.
Partners
- Irlam and Cadishead Community High School are providing student support for public art projects
- GMPTA have carried out a survey and asked whether people whether they would be interested in being involved in a Friends group (identifying 40 interested individuals)
- Councillors have provided advice, support and guidance
- Neighbourhood management team have provided support; help with funding applications, resources, chairing meetings and group capacity building
- Community Arts Development Officer has helped with community art projects at the station
- GMPTE have provided network support
- Northern Rail have provided support and technical advice
- Representatives from other ’Friends’ groups have contributed by providing support and information sharing
- Association of Community Rail Partnerships (ACORP) has provided support and information from federation of rail user groups
- ICT community development officer has assisted in designing the website
- Probation services have contributed labour from the unpaid work unit.
Achievements
- A notice board was installed in May 2006
- New signage has been installed
- Vegetation has been cleared from the station
- The group has successfully campaigned for Sunday Services to recommence
- New litter bins have been installed
- The group have established a Friends of Irlam Station website to promote their activities.
There are some more long term or future projects that are also being addressed by the group:
- Look at access issues for people with pushchairs or customers with disabilities
- Improve station facilities by fitting seats, dog fouling signs and bins, litter bins and installing bike lockers
- Improve information available for customers via boards and announcement or tannoy system
- Improve safety through lighting, re-design and CCTV. This includes addressing the subway
- Improve car-parking facilities
- Improve surrounding area including the approach road
- Man the station and create booking office.
This page was last updated on 19 November 2008
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