Land purchase plan backed for new £20m Elland rail station

Calderdale Council’s Cabinet members supported approving cash and compulsory purchase powers relating to a £20 million new rail station at Elland.

Officers are green-lighted to begin negotiations to buy land up the value of around £600,000 to start work on the station and access routes.

Approval powers to make side road orders needed for when work is carried out will also now be in place.

Cabinet member for Regeneration and Strategy, the council’s Deputy Leader, Coun Jane Scullion (Lab, Luddenden Foot), said it was fantastic the scheme was moving towards the practicalities, making things happen with partners in the West Yorkshire Combined Authority.

She said the council would only use compulsory purchase powers (CPOs) if it had to and preferred negotiation.

“CPOs are used as rarely as we possibly can.

“We have a good record in Calderdale of having negotiations with landowners for all the various pockets of land we have had in projects recently,” she said.

Supported by the West Yorkshire Combined Authority’s transport fund, the £20 million scheme will see the new station established with the aim of increasing public transport options for significant numbers of people and bringing climate emergency benefits in the process, Calderdale Council Cabinet members were told.

Officers can now start securing plots of land, of varying size and ownership, ranging from individuals to companies, necessary to realise the scheme, with side road orders including including building a new pedestrian bridge.

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