Plans for second entrance at Hackney Central station move ahead

Plans to alleviate overcrowding at Hackney Central station are now moving ahead, with a decision by the Town Hall to provide a second entrance on council-owned land on Graham Road.

The council will also be signing a non-legally binding agreement with Transport for London (TfL) and Network Rail, which it is hoped will “focus minds” on all sides to collaborate on a new permanent entrance on the north side of the station.

Usage of the Overground went up by 160 per cent between 2007 and 2013 and is expected to increase by up to 40 per cent over the next ten years, with the station’s 1980s building, itself only designed with a 20-year operating life in mind, struggling to accommodate daily crowds of travellers.

Hackney Mayor Philip Glanville said: “The council is committed to supporting our high streets and town centres as well as providing sustainable transport infrastructure for our residents, businesses as well as visitors to the borough.

“We are providing our own land on Graham Road to create a second entrance to the station. Doing this means we are not able to develop the ground floor of the site for another use in the short term which represents a loss in income to the council.

“If the site was not being used for a new station entrance it could have been developed for an alternative appropriate use which would have resulted in an income stream to the council, as well as added to the town centre offer and the vitality of the town centre.

“However, given the need to address immediate overcrowding issues at Hackney Central station, the council is progressing this approach.”

A TfL user survey shows that around a third of existing passengers at Hackney Central would use the Graham Road temporary entrance, which would be expected to alleviate congestion from its opening date.

Hackney purchased the land four years ago for just over £4m, securing planning permission to build up to 10 flats with commercial units on the ground floor, though these plans expired in 2017.

According to a council report on the decision, the land will be revalued at an estimated £360k, or equivalent to the value of the peppercorn lease offered by the council, with the report adding: “The downward valuing of the land has no additional financial impact owing to statutory local government accounting rules, where capital charges do not impact on revenue.”

Usually the council would have to apply to the government to get permission to dispose of land at undervaluations of £2m or more, but in this case does not have to as the arrangement is understood to “secure the promotion or improvement of the economic, social or environmental wellbeing of the area”.

The £3.2m funding for the construction of the temporary entrance will be covered by Network Rail.

A ‘Guerrilla Garden’ was set up on the site by Extinction Rebellion last year, with a council report revealing that the Town Hall is currently asking the garden group to sign a licence for the use of the land, which would necessitate them leaving it once works to the station begin.

A ‘Memorandum of Understanding’ has also been signed between TfL and Network Rail to look at how to advance a more permanent ‘landmark’ of a station building on the north side of Hackney Central, with the council funding the design of the building and the two transport organisations seeking funding to deliver it.

A potential spanner in the works is that the land on the north side of the station is safeguarded as an ‘area of surface interest’ for the Crossrail 2 scheme, meaning that development may not be able to take place in advance of the infrastructure project’s construction.

The memorandum, which has not yet been signed, is understood to give the council the ability to develop above and around the temporary Graham Road entrance if it ends up becoming a “longer term fixture”, with the current break clause in the land’s lease set at 15 years.

Both TfL and Network Rail were approached for comment, but had not responded by time of going to press.