Stratford Station - 20 years in the making!
Posted by Stephen Timms, MP for East Ham, at 12:22, Mon 6 November 2006:
Stratford International Station has been an important part of my life for nineteen years now – and it will still be another couple of years before it opens. It was back in 1987 that British Rail announced they were considering Stratford as a site for a station on the planned Channel Tunnel Rail Link.
At the time I was the chair of Newham Council’s planning committee. It was obvious that a new station would provide a once in a lifetime opportunity to regenerate the whole of the borough, so I wanted to do everything we could to support the Stratford proposal. I took the idea to the Newham Labour Councillors group and was given unanimous backing for a campaign for Stratford station. The Council’s sustained campaign was the key to eventual success.
Of course it wasn’t just the Council that wanted the station at Stratford. We won strong support from businesses and other public agencies too. Together we formed the Stratford promoter group. Our trump card was the strength of popular support in the borough – surveys showed 77% of Newham residents were in favour.
We gathered statistics to show how the area would benefit from the investment. At the time, a quarter of all the unemployed people in London lived within 5 miles of the Stratford site. I showed the Deputy Prime Minister, Michael Heseltine, around Stratford and took him to the top of Holden Point to view the proposed site.
In 1994, after my election as MP, I used my maiden speech in the House of Commons to urge the Government to give Stratford international station the go ahead. I continued to do so at every opportunity. On one occasion when the House of Commons was sitting through the night, Tony Banks and I debated the issue with the Transport Minister at 5am! In 1996 the Government finally accepted our arguments. We then had the problem that it looked as if the Channel Tunnel Rail Link project might collapse altogether. It was saved in 1997 by the determined intervention of the new Deputy Prime Minister, John Prescott, who, in his announcement, made it crystal clear that Stratford station was an integral part of the project.
Work started on the site in early 2001, and the major construction work on the station ended last Summer. Just before the building work was completed, members of the International Olympic Committee paid a visit, to assess London’s bid to host the 2012 Olympics. They were impressed – and the station was a key asset for London in winning the Games.
Many people in Newham worked hard over a long period to make sure the international station was built at Stratford. Not even the most optimistic among us, however, realised it was going to lead to the Olympic Games coming to Newham too. The campaign showed just how much we can achieve when we all work together. And we need now to keep working together, to make the most of the fantastic opportunities ahead.
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