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Top level talks on station future
Crunch talks involving all the key players at Leyland Railway Station will take place in the first week of February.
'Feasibility discussions' on taking the much-maligned site forward are planned between South Ribble Borough Council, Lancashire County Council, Northern Rail, Network Rail and Steve Broomhead of the North West Development Agency.
Council leader Margaret Smith admitted the railway station, particularly the lack of disabled access to the middle two platforms, had become a 'personal' commitment.
She said: "This does mark some progress from the last time we met.
Since then we have been pushing them to do a feasibility study into exactly what is needed, especially with regard to disabled access. We feel that it is moving forward now that Northern Rail and Network Rail have agreed to bring in the first lot of results to the meeting.
"All the major players with a function in the rail system are coming along to put their two pennyworth in and there is now pressure on the service providers from all sorts of places.
"We are firmly committed and in the first week of February we will have these feasibility discussions and hopefully get some concrete ideas.
"One of the key things to see is what is needed, how much it will cost, and who will pay for disabled access.
"If we don't get all three answers, I'd at least like to know how we can tackle it.
"When you travel by train from Preston to Manchester, all the other stations have disabled access apart from us – Leyland is disadvantaged."
Last week the Guardian revealed that a fee of 1 a day has been suggested by the council as a starting point for the revamped car park charges.
The 30,000 upgrade scheme on the lower car parks will see the authority take over the management of the facility from Northern Rail.
It is the start of a pay-and-display scheme which council bosses hopes will contribute to the overall improvement of the station, which has been blighted by vandalism and anti-social behaviour.
Once the work is finished, CCTV coverage will be installed to monitor the area.
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Weather for Leyland
Saturday 04 February 2012
Today
Heavy sleet
Temperature: 2 C to 4 C
Wind Speed: 22 mph
Wind direction: South east
Tomorrow
Cloudy
Temperature: 4 C to 7 C
Wind Speed: 16 mph
Wind direction: West
