Leeds City Council has granted planning permission for a proposed new train station at the White Rose Shopping Centre on the outskirts of Leeds. The project, which was first proposed in 2018, is being delivered through a partnership between the landowner, the West Yorkshire Combined Authority, Leeds City Council and Network Rail (NR). The project is a good example of how private and public sector collaboration can speed up the delivery of large infrastructure projects.
Network Rail has released its latest plans for the Croydon Area Remodelling Scheme (CARS), which is intended to unblock the bottleneck on the Brighton mainline at Selhurst Triangle. The current proposals would mean rebuilding the station, moving the main concourse 100 metres north of where the current station is positioned. The new station would add two additional platforms two the station, intended to ease what is considered to be the most congested stretch of railway in Britain with 1,700 trains travelling through on a normal weekday.
The University of Birmingham has secured £400k of funding from the Department for Transport to help develop the UK’s first hydrogen powered train called ‘HydroFLEX’. Testing on the UK’s railway network is due to begin in the next few weeks.
A programme of maintenance work on the Wessex route, which was programmed to take 18 months, will now be completed in nine days as a result of the low number of passenger services on the network. A section of railway in Templecombe, Somerset has been closed to allow NR to undertake work to a cutting which suffered damage during last winter’s Storm Kate.
The successful challenge to the Heathrow Third Runway proposals has resulted in a raft of environmental based challenges being brought forwards against various DCO projects and National Policy Statements that underpin the DCO regime.
The latest includes the Good Law Project challenge to the decision not to review the suite of six energy National Policy Statements (NPS) designated back in 2011. The main reasoning behind the challenge is that since the Energy NPSs were designated, there has been a material and fundamental change of circumstances with regards to the Government’s carbon reduction targets. It is understood the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy considers such a review would be premature considering the forthcoming Energy White Paper having not yet been published.
Stockport Council has submitted a £14.5m bid to the Government’s Future High Street Fund (FHSF) to deliver their ambitious project for the town centre known as ‘StockRoom,’ which aims to bring a learning and knowledge hub to the town centre. It will celebrate the culture and creativity of the town, providing a space that encourages people to tell their story. If successful, StockRoom will sit at the heart of the town centre and will repurpose 135,000 sq ft of retail space around Adlington Walk in the Merseyway Shopping Centre.
The government launched the FHSF in 2018, with the aim of renewing and reshaping town centres and high streets to drive growth, improve experiences and ensure future sustainability by providing co-funding to successful applicants to support transformative and structural changes, to overcome challenges in their area.
According to Transport for the North's chief executive Barry White, the UK is “waking up to the pent-up economic potential in the North, waiting to be unleashed.” Infrastructure View travelled to Manchester to meet him.
Long-awaited proposals, set to unlock the significant economic, social and environmental opportunities offered by location data and boost the UK’s global geospatial expertise were launched last week, with the publication of the Geospatial Commission’s report - Unlocking the power of location, the UK’s Geospatial Strategy, 2020 to 2025.
Did you miss our webinar Out of the difficult box, into the toolbox? Partners Paul Astbury and Selina Wakeham cover the basic of CPO in regeneration schemes.
The renewal of property is essential in building communities and improving our urban landscape. Jessica Graham, Associate Partner, explains the role of land assembly.
Mark Hall-Digweed heads the Infrastructures department, where he has developed the team to deliver project management, land agency and property consultancy services to utility, public sector bodies and civil engineering organisations. The team is very successful and has grown to attract large clients such as Network Rail. Mark was also appointed in 2010 to lead Carter Jonas’s cross divisional Public Sector Group, where he is responsible for developing clients with complex multi-faceted requirements.
Marks primary skills include multiple site management, high level negotiation and dispute resolution, programme management and the implementation of new systems, estate management, as well as compulsory purchase and compensation work. He has high levels of experience in all of the above.
