New railway station for East London gets formal approval

Last week, the necessary final paperwork was signed for a large housing development, that will also include a new railway station on the c2c line out of Fenchurch Street.

The site is to be known as Beam Park, and is the former Ford manufacturing plant in Dagenham, now owned by the GLA, and has received the final consents for a 3,000 home development by L&Q and Countryside, with around half classed as “affordable”. The formal consent was granted last week, following the signing of the Section 106 Agreement.

Construction will commence this spring and sales of the new homes are due to launch later this year, with the first homes ready in 2020. Phase one of the development, providing 640 new homes, is due to be completed by 2022.

As part of the development, a new railway station will also be added, half-way between Dagenham Dock and Rainham stations, and right next to the new housing development.

The Development Agreement includes the obligation for Countryside to provide a station building to a shell and core specification.

A total of £9.6 million has been allocated to the initial phase of the development of the station, with the fit out being provided by Network Rail. There is a funding gap at the moment between the costs and the amount available, but the GLA has put in a request to the government’s Housing Infrastructure Funding for the rest, with a decision due in May 2019.

Construction works are currently expected to start in the Autumn, and the core of the station is due to be completed by next Summer.

The new railway station, provisionally called Beam Park Station is projected to open in May 2022, and the main building has been designed by JSA Architects.

Cumulatively, delivery of the station is expected to unlock housing sites with the capacity to deliver between 4,000 and 6,000 additional homes on the the former Somerfield development site, and other adjacent sites situated within the Housing Zone.