A large car park at a Cambridgeshire station which cost MILLIONS to build lies EMPTY most days and is now used by youngsters to race cars and play football at night, according to local residents.
Aerial photos show the 50-space car park at the new £18 MILLION Soham railway station in Cambridgeshire was completely empty at Friday lunchtime (Nov 1).
Soham station car park, which has 50 spaces and an additional four disabled bays, is run by NCP and costs £3 a day, but most travellers prefer to opt for free parking across the town and walk to the station. PHOTO: Terry HarrisThe car park was built in the town as part of a multi-million pound scheme pushed through by former Cambridgeshire and Peterborough Combined Authority Mayor James Palmer, who wanted to bring back a station to his home town of Soham, which had been without one for 55 years.
The station opened in 2021, but residents have blasted the council for wasting taxpayers money on the car park which is “always empty” and has simply become a “playground for anti-social behaviour.”
Soham Station, Car Park, Bridge and lack of use. Railway Station, Soham Friday 01 November 2024.Picture by Terry Harris.
Donna Martin, who lives next to the playground, said: “The council cut down 400 trees and destroyed a wildlife area, which had three species of bird on the RSPB red list, lizards and great crested newts, and the car park isn’t even used.
“The area was prevalent with wildlife, but they got rid of it all to make a car park which is always empty, apart from when it is used as a playground for anti-social behaviour.
Soham Station, Car Park, Bridge and lack of use. Railway Station, SohamFriday 01 November 2024.
Picture by Terry Harris.
“The station and car park were never needed in the first place and now it is used by youngsters to race and skid their cars when it’s raining or to play football late at night because it’s flood lit.
“They play loud music and shout at each other and four out of seven days a week there’s things going on in the car park which shouldn’t be.
Soham Station, Car Park, Bridge and lack of use. Railway Station, Soham Friday 01 November 2024.Picture by Terry Harris.
“The unnecessary car park has also caused light pollution as the lights are left on all night, so it’s never dark for us anymore. There aren’t even any CCTV cameras, and we’re fed up with having to police the car park.
Soham station car park, which has 50 spaces and an additional four disabled bays, is run by NCP and costs £3 a day, but most travellers prefer to opt for free parking across the town and walk to the station. PHOTO: Terry Harris“We’ve asked the police to do drive-bys, but they don’t want to know. The car park has totally ruined the quality of life for everyone in this area.”
Another resident, Robert Chippett, wrote on Facebook: “I would guess it costs more to administer the car parking than it takes in receipts.
“Most times I have dropped people at the station as a volunteer driver there has either been zero or one car!”
Soham station car park, which has 50 spaces and an additional four disabled bays, is run by NCP and costs £3 a day, but most travellers prefer to opt for free parking across the town and walk to the station. PHOTO: Terry HarrisThe car park, which has 50 spaces and an additional four disabled bays, is run by NCP and costs £3 a day, but most travellers prefer to opt for free parking across the town and walk to the station.
At Soham many questioned the overall cost and queried the necessity not only for the car park to be the size it is, but the curious anomaly of a footbridge over the line at Soham that leads to nowhere!
The stepped footbridge across the railway connects to an existing public right of way and that’s it.
At some stage in the future, it could be used for installation of lifts for a potential second platform for any scheme that might come along but neither the Combined Authority or Network Rail has any plans or expectations of that for the foreseeable future, particularly as the Chancellor is yet to sign off on a £500m upgrade to the lines around Ely which have been the subject of considerable lobbying and campaigning for the past 10 years.
So, for nigh on £20m, Soham got a forecourt with a ticket machine, cycle parking and a car park for 50 vehicles.
And a single 99 metre platform to accommodate four car train services including waiting shelters, lighting, information screens and a public address system,
As one rail blogger put it: “But how on earth has this modest list of facilities added up to over £20 million?”
The same blogger pointed out that another new station opened around the same time, a similar one platform affair at Bow Street near Aberystwyth, was delivered for £8 million “and even that sounded expensive compared to Horden near Hartlepool which opened in June 2020 comprising two platforms and an enormous footbridge and ramps for just £10.5 million – around half the cost of Soham”.
