A new Crossrail 2 station in Chelsea brings great benefits to the area and people living in it, Kensington and Chelsea Council say.
It has set out its case for the station in King’s Road in its formal submission to Transport for London’s (TfL) consultation, which closed on Friday (January 8).
Opposition to a new station, estimated to cost £1 billion, has been fierce over recent months. But a new campaign group called Chelsea 4 Crossrail 2 has launched in favour of the station.
The public consultation had begun in October. Chris Lenon, chairman of the No Crossrail in Chelsea campaign says the public are overwhelmingly opposed to the station leaving the council “increasingly isolated”.
Putting forward the case for a new station, K&C said it will allow 5,000 households to be within ten minutes of a train station, and that journey times between the heart of Chelsea and locations such as the City and West End, Gatwick and Clapham Junction would be slashed.
It would also reduce congestion on its roads and improve air quality, which it says is a factor in one-in-12 deaths in the Royal borough.
Originally, TfL had looked to build a station on the site of the fire station , but it is now looking to build it at the junction with Sydney Street .
This too was welcomed by the council, who say it is less residential, closer to local bus routes and would not require the temporary use of Dovehouse Green as a worksite.
It also praised the development scale and design, in particular the single storey glass structure between two existing buildings.
But the council warned that disruption must be kept to a minimum during construction, and welcomed TfL’s commitment to work with Historic England to ensure the protection of important building and conservation areas.
The submission acknowledges and discusses the local opposition to a Crossrail 2 station in Chelsea .
While accepting that “many residents, and some businesses too, have not been persuaded by the case for a station” the Council argues that it is “regrettable that the debate has been held against a background of unsupported claims.”
The council’s planning and transport head Tim Coleridge, said: “When taken together, we believe the benefits of Crossrail 2, in terms of journey transformation, increased commerce, better air quality and less congestion outweigh the legitimate but addressable concerns about the station and about construction and ground settlement.
“We have already seen concerns about the station convincingly dealt with by TfL . Our focus now is on construction methods to ensure that traffic disruption, lorry movements and settlement, if any, are kept to the minimum.”
But Mr Lenon argued otherwise.
He listed celebrities opposed to the plan, including Mark Knopfler and Felicity Kendal and said: “The Council is increasingly isolated. It continues with its spurious assertions and seems obdurate in not being able to accept the views of its own electorate, who do not need and do not want this station.
“Our supporters have spoken in their thousands, by both signing our petition and responding to TfL’s public consultation. We have demonstrated that the Council is out of touch with residents and local businesses and that plans for this £1.2 billion mega station on the King’s Road should be scrapped immediately.”
