A project has been launched to tidy up walls at Shrewsbury’s railway station after the town’s MP branded them a disgrace.

Daniel Kawczynski hit out at the state of the building last year and was flabbergasted after bosses were quoted a “staggering” £100,000 to clean up a dilapidated wall. The MP said the wall on Platform Seven had paint peeling off, was covered in buddleia and looked totally “neglected”.

But Network Rail says it has now launched a programme to re-render the blast walls at the site. It started on February 15 and is expected to take up to four weeks to complete.

A letter to Mr Kawczynski from Kristian Alexander, community relations manager for NR, says that they have taken on board his concerns. It follows a discussion between the MP and public affairs manager Dylan Bowen last year.

He says: “We did recognise that there is room for improvement at Shrewsbury and as such we sought opportunities to enhance the station environment within our current funding arrangements.

“This project builds on recent improvements that have been delivered at Shrewsbury, with work on a new waiting room and lift on Platform 3 as well as a major electrical re-wire of the station to improve lighting.”

Mr Alexander said the work to re-render the blast walls has been developed in co-operation with the station manager, Arriva Trains Wales.

Last summer volunteers carried out a clean-up of Shrewsbury station after Mr Kawczynski criticised it.

The MP for Shrewsbury and Atcham also accused Network Rail of double standards over its maintenance of Shrewsbury and Wolverhampton railway stations.

He claimed that while Wolverhampton was kept clean, weeds were allowed to flourish on the tracks at Shrewsbury.

The Tory MP held a meeting with fellow county MPs and Shropshire Council to see if something could be done to tidy up the station through the use of volunteers.

And the authority said work was carried out to improve the situation through its environmental maintenance department.

By Russell Roberts