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Shut out of station
• MORE than 70 people turned out to a public meeting at Blessed Sacrament Church, next door to King’s Cross station, last week. Residents and workers in Islington and Camden are furious that Network Rail will not fund a much-needed pedestrian and cyclist link across the tracks to the rear of King’s Cross station.
The bridge would replace the soon-to-close York Way/Wharfdale Road entrance that not only makes the station permeable, but links the King’s Cross communities in both boroughs.
Alastair Metcalf, Tom Higginson and Emily Mansell, all of Network Rail, attended. The limits of Network Rail’s interest in building a bridge across the rear of the tracks were clearly stated. Although it would support such a bridge, it would not at the moment be prepared to pay for it as it does not fit with its business plans. A bridge would cost about £4million, about one per cent of the £400million-plus budget for the station redevelopment.
Labour councillor Paul Convery called on all bodies that could become partners in the bridge project to see the bigger picture. Without a bridge, King’s Cross turns its back on our community. With the bridge our community remains properly joined to sister communities in Somers Town and the south side of King’s Cross, making our area a better place to live and work in.
SOPHIE TALBOT
Wharfdale Road, N1
• NETWORK Rail should listen to local people and keep an entrance to King’s Cross open on the east side of the station (Outrage over bridge ‘U-turn’, July 18).
As a councillor representing Clerkenwell, I hoped work on the station would give us better access – not shut us out and make our journeys more difficult. The area is already affected by the relocation of Thameslink to St Pancras and the closure of Pentonville Road entrance to the Tube in the evenings and at weekends. By permanently closing the eastern entrance, Network Rail would be adding insult to injury.
I’ll be joining campaigners to fight this, and I hope people will sign the online petition at petitions.pm.
gov.uk/kingscrossaccess. This issue is important to Islington.
CLLR MARISHA RAY
Lib Dem, Clerkenwell
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