Major improvements at Three Bridges Station will cost millions more than originally estimated.
The work, which has been in the pipeline since before the pandemic, had been allocated £4.135m from the Crawley Growth Programme – but that will no longer be enough.
West Sussex County Council, Crawley Borough Council’s partner in the growth programme, has approved an extra £3.835m for the scheme, taking the total budget to £7.97m.
The decision was made by leader Paul Marshall on Wednesday (March 25) and was made possible by a number of under-spends elsewhere in the growth programme.
The aim of the scheme is to make a swathe of improvements to the station forecourt, the provision for picking up and dropping off passengers by car and taxi, bus connectivity, pedestrian and cycle links, access to the station and parking at the station.
A new entrance and exit point will be added at platform 5, with a new pedestrian and cycle entrance from Station Hill.
The project has received planning permission and work is expected to start in the winter.
Michael Jones, leader of Crawley Borough Council, said he was ‘extremely pleased’ with the county council’s decision.
He added: “It is exciting to move forward. Anyone who has been following this will know it’s taken rather a long time to get to this point.
“We will end up with something that’s quite special, I think, and will really lift that whole part of the town.”
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