Cash pledge for improvements to Shrewsbury train station

But the Government has promised that an ongoing overhaul – set to cost in the region of £2 million – will be finished within five years.

And £800,000 has been promised to improve the Dana footbridge at the train station.

Daniel Kawczynski, MP for Shrewsbury and Atcham, lobbied the Department for Transport to task Arriva Trains Wales and Network Rail to clean up the station, one of the major gateways to the town.

A Parliamentary debate on the state of the station's upkeep took place yesterday in Westminster Hall in London.

Mr Kawczynski told Claire Perry, the Parliamentary Under Secretary of State at the Department for Transport, of the overgrown scrubland and the lack of CCTV and lighting which surrounds the Dana steps.

He also highlighted the dilapidated state of the Dana footbridge, the canopy above the station entrance and areas where industrial waste lay rusting and litter was strewn around.

Ms Perry said: "As I am sure my honourable friend is aware, £2 million of investment has been spent on the station over nine years but I am sure he is delighted that as much again is being spent over the current five years.

"This will include the refurbishment of the toilets, particularly to include a disability toilet, which I am told is work ongoing and should be finished very soon, including refurbishing the station canopies, which he referred to as being in rather poor order, external redecoration of the platform areas and resurfacing of the station car park."

She said work to improve the Dana footbridge had been costed as £800,000, which should be delivered in 2015/16. She said she would write to Arriva Trains Wales and Network Rail to ask for specific completion dates for the work.

She added that Arriva Trains Wales was responsible for all work which did not require an operational shutdown of the station to deliver, like cleanliness and redecoration, while Network Rail was responsible for structural work like the canopy refurbishment.

Mr Kawczynski said: "I think the debate went very well as I have been briefing the minister for a long time on this issue and her boss Patrick McLoughlin, the Secretary of State for Transport, when he visited the station for the first Virgin train service direct to London.

"I was delighted with the promise of £800,000 to be spent on the Dana bridge as at the moment it has a terrible appearance. I was especially grateful to one of her officials who took the time to come to Shrewsbury to photograph the areas of concern I had highlighted."