Site of the former rail yard in Chesterton where a new link to the main line is proposed

A POLITICAL spat has begun over who deserves credit for ensuring Cambridge has a second train station in the city.

Cambridgeshire County Council is on tenterhooks waiting for a letter from the Department of Transport giving the go-ahead for the station at Chesterton, but as the station looks likes it might become a reality, different parties are lining up to take the plaudits.

The scheme could dramatically reduce congestion on Cambridge’s roads with some 80 per cent of the traffic which uses the main station coming from the north to the south east of the city.

At last week’s cabinet meeting, the budget for 2012-13 was discussed, in which Chesterton station has been included as a major capital spend along with schemes such as the Ely Crossing and the implementation of superfast broadband.

When Cllr Kilian Bourke, leader of the Liberal Democrat group, had the floor he said he was glad the Tory-run council had taken note of his party’s idea to pursue the station. This was met by a collective, prolonged laughter from much of the cabinet.

Cambridge MP and Liberal Democrat spokesman on transport Julian Huppert has always been a strong supporter of the scheme but leader of the council Cllr Nick Clarke is keen to remind people of the county council’s role in the plans.

Cllr Bourke’s Liberal Democrat claim even spurred Cllr Clarke into writing a blog post on “who thought of Chesterton station”.

In it he discovered the 1987 administration - a time of no political majority - was first to look into the potential of a second station to the north of the city.

“So, it’s pretty solidly a county council idea that has been promoted by various administrations since,” he wrote.

“I am pleased Julian Huppert supports our initiative to open the station (we are going to fund it) but it seems a little odd that claims are being made that it was his idea.

“I know he is bright but as he would have only been 11 at the time that does strike me as little young to have driven this idea.”

Dr Huppert, a former county councillor for East Chesterton, said he “never claimed that it was my idea but I have championed it”.

He added: “I have been campaigning for this for ages. It was definitely on my website in 2004 as a key issue, and I think I started raising it pretty much when elected to the county council.

“I have never claimed that it was my idea but I have championed it on the county council, on the regional assembly when I was on the executive and in parliament. I invited Theresa Villiers, Rail Minister, to come to see it, and have been pressing regularly with her and the two secretaries of state.”