Newsdesk

"COLLEGE YES, RAIL STATION NO"

25th July 2003

Campaigner Steve Dawe welcomes the decision to re-develop the Canterbury College site. However, the same arguments used to protect the countryside from a Canterbury College campus apply to the proposed Parkway rail station. He comments:

"Funding secured to redevelop the Canterbury College site is exactly what was needed in the first place, and what many people wanted. The College provides many of the skills needed to address scarcities, especially for construction specialisms.

"The Green Party regrets that Canterbury City Council does not recognise how a proposed Parkway station would be a direct challenge to Government planning guidelines (1). Development likely to generate significant traffic movements should be located in urban centres and not on the urban periphery, according to Government advice. The Council has committed itself to traffic reduction. Another Park and Ride will also generate more traffic congestion in its vicinity, like the Wincheap Park and Ride. Creating a Parkway station, and putting Canterbury East and West under threat, is bound to generate more traffic movements since existing rail users will have to travel to the new site. The area proposed has orchards, flood plain, a major Site of Scientific Interest and heavy cost implications partly because of the nature of the terrain: steep slopes particularly. Why not just arrange a shuttle bus between the East and West stations: it would be a lot cheaper?"

ENDS c233 words
FURTHER INFORMATION: Steve Dawe, Press Officer, 01233 645167 or 07904 382203. Steve Dawe was an officer of PEOPLE AGAINST CANTERBURY EXPANSION FROM 1996-2001, which successfully defeated an attempt to re-locate Canterbury College on to a greenfield site south of Canterbury.

Notes: 1. Planning Policy Guidance 7 and are both relevant, as they were to the case of Canterbury College.

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Updated by
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20th June 2005