Goring and Streatley Station unveils plaque for volunteers



A plaque has been unveiled at Goring and Streatley Station to honour the work members of the community have put into improving their local environment.

Great Western Railway (GWR) recognised the efforts of Stephanie and Ron Bridle and Janet Hurst from Goring-on-Thames in Bloom, and John Boler from Mobility Issues Group for Goring and Streatley (MIGGS).

With the support of GWR, Goring-on-Thames in Bloom began work on platform 4 in 2017, transforming it into a sustainable haven for wildlife.



Mr Boler, chairman of MIGGS, said: "I'm very grateful to GWR for the acknowledgement represented by this plaque, which shows their appreciation of the work we have done, and to their ongoing commitment to making the railway more accessible for all. It’s a team effort in every sense."

Ms Bridle, from Goring-on-Thames in Bloom, added: "Janet, Ron, and I are so thrilled to be at Goring and Streatley today for this plaque unveiling and we want to thank GWR for supporting our fellow volunteers’ hard work to make the station bloom all year round. Transforming parts of Goring into beautiful, sustainable spaces where nature can thrive and that the community can enjoy has been such a privilege."

Up to 5,000 homes are planned on disused land by the River Tyne

The UK government has pledged to build up to 40,000 new homes on disused railway land, including former goods yards, industrial sites and station buildings, over the next ten years.

The £1bn development plans will start with previously identified projects in Manchester, Newcastle, Nottingham and Cambridge.

The government said it was part of its "brownfield first" approach and would create "vibrant" new communities.

However, an interim target of 15,000 in the first five years, is a small fraction of the total 1.5 million new homes the government has promised by the end of this parliament, plans that are already facing big hurdles.

The government aims to attract £350m in private sector investment to help develop vacant industrial sites across the country, to create shops, green spaces and hotels as well as flats and houses.

It is part of its bigger promise to tackle housing shortages across the country. However, those plans face a huge range of obstacles, including strains on local infrastructure such as water, sewage, schools and healthcare, and a lack of capacity in the construction industry to build the new homes

Industry groups say there are already backlogs, with hundreds of homebuilding projects held up by regulatory obstacles.


Plans include building 1,500 new homes at Manchester's derelict Mayfield railway station

A new development company, called Platform4, is being created, by rolling together two existing bodies: London and Continental Railways and Network Rail's Property Development Team. Both currently have responsibility for managing disused railway land, but the Department for Transport said that this "fragmented approach" had led to "inefficiencies, duplicated efforts and missed opportunities".

Transport Secretary Heidi Alexander said the new developments would support jobs and drive growth as well as providing much needed homes. "It's exciting to picture the thousands of families who will live in these future homes, the vibrant neighbourhoods springing up, and the new businesses that will launch thanks to these developments," she said.

Bek Seeley, the chair of London and Continental Railways, has been appointed as chair of Platform4.

However, the industry group the National Federation of Builders (NFB) said planning delays were blocking progress on existing building projects on a scale equal to the government's new plans. According to the NFB at least 40,000 new homes are being held up by regulators, including 700 projects waiting for the go-ahead from the Building Safety Regulator, which was set up in the aftermath of the Grenfell Tower fire to oversee higher-risk buildings.

The NFB also said planning delays were also causing small businesses to leave the construction industry, with a knock-on effect on training and apprenticeships.

Rico Wojtulewicz, the NFB's head of policy and market insight said building houses near to railway lines was a "winning blueprint" because stations "already connect up local and regional communities". But he said elsewhere government policy was adding to building costs "on at least ten fronts".

The Building Safety Regulator said many applications had "taken longer than anticipated to process" and that said it was rejecting around 70% of applications because they did not meet legal requirements.

From the BBC:

06:35 Salisbury to Worcester Foregate Street due 09:47

30/07/25 06:35 Salisbury to Worcester Foregate Street due 09:47 will be started from Westbury.
It will no longer call at Salisbury and Warminster.
This is due to a shortage of train crew.

A man fleeing from police was electrocuted and then hit by a London Underground train which was searching for him, his inquest has heard.

Senior coroner Andrew Walker said Transport for London's (TfL) response was "inadequate" after Robert English, 32, was killed in May 2024 when he was walking along the track near Colindale station in north London following reports of a fight.

TfL staff had initially turned off the power supply but then restored it after police mistakenly believed Mr English had climbed over a fence that separated the station from a park, the inquest heard.

A Tube train that had been held stationary then began to search the track and ran him over.

Claire Mann, TfL's chief operating officer, said: "We are committed to working with policing partners and reviewing our own operational practices to learn from this incident."

Mr English was last seen at about 01:00 BST on 19 May but "made his way into the night beyond the station" after two officers "sought to contain him rather than restrain him", according to Mr Walker, senior coroner for northern London.

The 32-year-old was electrocuted before being run over by a search train about 500m (1,640ft) from the station.

Mr Walker said that the train "was not adequately equipped to conduct such a search in darkness and this response was inadequate".

The power was wrongly restored because the station manager confirmed that the police had left and Mr Walker was nowhere to be seen, having climbed a fence a left the track, the coroner said.



Mr Walker wrote that TfL had not followed its own rulebook, in particular by failing to tell "all the relevant people" that the power supply was about to be switched on.  He added: "This would have given the (Metropolitan) police and British Transport Police an opportunity to confirm that Mr English had not been found and was likely still on the railway side of the tracks.  It is likely that had this step been followed the power supply would not have been switched on and a proper search, which was also possible, is likely to have found Mr English and returned him safely to the station."

The police watchdog ruled in June 2024 that an investigation was not required.

In April, TfL was urged to deliver a "concrete plan" to prevent intoxicated passengers being killed on its network following the accidental death of an artist in a Tube tunnel after a night out in London.

Ms Mann added: "Our thoughts are with the friends and family of Robert English following his tragic death last year.  We undertook a formal investigation of the incident and assisted the coroner during the inquest.  We are thoroughly reviewing the coroner's prevention of future deaths report before responding in full and will consider any appropriate actions to make the transport network as safe as possible."

A Department for Transport spokesperson said: "We are considering the coroner's prevention of future deaths report."

Severn Beach line curving left just after leaving Sea Mills to the left to cross the Severn and after the bridge running pretty much straight into the existing Portbury freight line well before Ham Green.