Public session to discuss Greater Anglia’s new planning application for work to Sax Station building – Monday 29th July 6.30 p.m.
Tuesday, July 23rd, 2019 8:22 pmThere’s some progress to report since our last post on the terrible state of Saxmundham station. The day after Town Council Chairman Jeremy Smith wrote to the chief executives of Greater Anglia and Network Rail, a planning application was submitted by GA to East Suffolk Council, the local planning authority, for work to make a single-storey station building (see below).
Then on Monday 8th July, the Town Council held a public session with around 30 members of the public present, who were united in expressing concern (or more) about the awful; state of the station, and the delay in doing remedial works. Several residents argued that GA should be obliged to restore the station building to something akin to its former state; others felt that this was unlikely to be accepted, and that we needed a well-designed building which provided facilities for rail users and the community.
It was agreed to open a special Facebook page to help campaign for a good outcome for our station, and new town councillor Georgia Watson has done this – you can find it here. She has posted information on the plans contained in GA’s application.
It was also agreed at the public session to draw up a petitition for residents and rail users to sign – this is being done as we write, and will be circulated shortly.
Saxmundham Town Council is consulted by East Suffolk Council on all planning applications that relate to the town. On this occasion, the Town Council is required to give its opinion by 31st July – a very tight deadline for such an important issue.
Therefore, the Council has decided to hold another public session dedicated to the station – this time to show the GA plans, and seek people’s comments. Following this, the Town Council will then meet in formal session to decide on its response. The meeting is on next Monday, 29th July, 6.30 p.m. at the Market Hall, High Street. We will have some copies of the floorplans etc. for those attending.
We have invited Greater Anglia to be represented at the public meeting to explain their proposals – not only fo the station building, but for the car park and garden/wild area within their site. We await their answer.
Meanwhile GA’s “Contact Centre” officer has responded to our original letter, briefly setting out the history since the fire from their point of view. You can read it here: Response from Greater Anglia recv 19 July 19
And here are Greater Anglia’s planning documents which they have lodged:
The Town Council’s first letter to Greater Anglia was prominently covered in the East Anglian Daily Times in its on-line and paper editions.
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