Flagship plans for the redevelopment of Kidsgrove Train Station could have to be scaled back, however council officers have insisted that something will be done to the train station.

Newcastle Borough Council was awarded £3.8 million Levelling Up money for a new car park, station forecourt and extended station building at Kidsgrove Station.

Previously the plans were halted after a mining survey was ordered by Network Rail. With work stalled on the project and the deadline for spending the money fast approaching the council have received confirmation that the deadline for spending the money has been extended until March 2027.

Now only £225,000 has been spent leaving much of the initial budget for the project untouched. Much of the frustration for Kidsgrove residents is the apparent discovery of mineshafts despite them being there for over 100 years.

Next month Kidsgrove Town Board will be presented with a recommendation to undertake the survey work which is needed to progress the project. The work will result in a cost of remediation and the council is hoping this can be removed from the Local Transport Fund

Previously, the plans were halted after a mining survey was ordered by Network Rail (Google).

Speaking recently Deputy Chief Executive Simon McEneny acknowledged that survey work was done when the bridge was constructed and had assurance that since none of the work involved going underground it would not be needed this time.

He said: "In terms of the ground work under that station, the bridge that went up did have a lot of survey work, the car park that is now sitting there empty had some remediation work. We were told that we didn't need any work to the station because we were only recladding the existing building, we're repurposing the car park and bus station in front and we're opening a car park which has already been created.

"So we were told that was all fine but as soon as you engage with Network Rail everything goes up by a million. As soon as we got the money it became a problem and we need to do it [the survey] and we have been working, could we have done the survey work last year – absolutely not.

"Because we didn't have the insurances and permits in place that Network Rail put up that we needed to do. So every time we moved a little bit we went back a couple of steps because 'oh you have to do this now' and these were not the same things that happened when the bridge was done."