A decade of campaigning and cajoling is about to come to a successful conclusion as a £185,000 scheme to smarten-up the booking hall at Bexhill station gets under way.

This is welcome news from rail operator Southern, which in partnership with the Department for Transport, Network Rail and the Railway Heritage Trust, is getting the wheels in motion.

Giving the booking hall a long-overdue make-over is the last phase in transforming Bexhill station into a facility worthy of the town.

It is difficult to believe now just how dreadful the station had become when Rother and Bexhill Town Forum began to campaign for its restoration in the mid-90s.

Then, there was hardly a pane of glass intact down the long walkways from the booking hall to the platforms.

Then, rain splashed through gaping holes in the canopies and onto the platforms.

There were no toilets available to the public. Nowhere to get a cup of tea or coffee.

It was a miserable, dimly-lit, draughty, risky place.

Worse, this still-important major gateway to the town gave an appalling first impression to visitors.

Vandal-ridden, neglected, shabby and thoroughly unwelcoming, it was a disgrace to the town.

Now, the canopies have been restored, the windows re-glazed.

It will take only the current booking hall make-over to complete the transformation from the bomb-site look to a station retaining all the architectural elements of its century-old heritage but which is worthy of the 21st Century rail traveller.

It took the intervention of the museum association in 1999 to get the station its Listed Building status. Soon, it should be restored to its 1901 glory.

And – glory be – at LAST passengers will be able to buy a "cuppa" once more.

Hooray.