Milton Keynes City Council have agreed to endorse funding options for the construction of an eastern entrance to Bletchley Railway Station.
The decision was made in a cabinet meeting last Tuesday, where Milton Keynes City Council decided to endorse the provisional reallocation of any potential underspend on the Transport Hub project as a contribution towards the costs of building the new entrance. This is subject to conditions, of identification of a full funding package with East-West Rail and partners, and exploration of alternative funding availability within the Town Deal programme.
Reasons for the decision
A key reason for the endorsement included the previous £22.7 million grant funding awarded to the council in 2021 (as part of the Towns Fund, which was intended to deliver seven regeneration projects in Central Bletchley.
Also, the Transport Hub, positioned adjacent to Bletchley train station, was allocated £3.91 m from the Towns Fund, with aims to better connect the train station to the train centre, one of the listed objectives included building an eastern entrance (subject to funding).
Over time, the project team worked alongside East-West Rail and Network Rail to ensure project alignment and appropriate land provision for the new entrance.
In addition to this, the Transport Hub project received supplementary funding from the council, which has led to assessments projecting an underspend across the project.
Once this was discovered, it was proposed that in order to fund the construction of the east entrance, funding from the Towns Fund would be used first, then any underspend from the Transport Hub would be allocated to construction of the entrance afterwards.
Given that the Council would therefore not be generating new funds for the project, but utilising existing funds, the project was found to be financially viable.
Overall, it was found in the executive report, and then agreed upon in the cabinet meeting, that if the Council were to do nothing, the opportunity to build the new entrance could be lost due to the possibility of securing new funds being unlikely.
As a result, the Council agreed to endorse reallocation of underspend on Transport Hub, to construction of an east entrance to Bletchley Station.
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