Refurbished rail station will include pharmacy

Town Mayor Cllr Patrick Douart on Wednesday formally declared open the station booking hall, ticket office and station frontage - refurbished at a cost of 185,000 final phase of the scheme.

Attending the ceremony were Richard Horne of the Railway Heritage Trust and Chris Burchell, managing director of rail operator Southern.

In partnership with the Department for Transport, Network Rail and the Railway Heritage Trust, Southern has restored the station to its Victorian splendour.

The campaign to get the badly dilapidated station restored began a decade ago.

The station was given Listed building status in 1999 at the urging of the Society of Bexhill Museums.

Since then, work has included restoration of the platform canopies and the windows to the platform approach ramps.

In the latest phase, 21st Century enhancements have included upgrading the CCTV system with seven additional cameras.

A new lighting scheme has been installed, staff accommodation improved, a new wheelchair-accessible customer toilet created and the station forecourt re-surfaced.

Southern's managing director told Wednesday's gathering that the new Trackside coffee shop should be opening within the next couple of months, providing tea, coffee, home-made cakes and cookies to take away or eat at tables set out in the booking hall from 7am to 7pm.

This will be followed by the opening by South East Health + of a pharmacy which will be open for 100 hours a week with two state-of-the-art clinical rooms offering services such as well-person clinics, cardiac monitoring, blood pressure checks, podiatry services and weight-loss clinics.

The Town Mayor joined Chris Burchell and Richard Horne in cutting a cake bearing the image of the restored station before declaring the booking hall open.

The Town Mayor said the town was grateful that the station had been restored.

It was had been a job well done.

The Railway Heritage Trust has advised and assisted Southern with the restoration. Richard Horne congratulated Southern on the way the task had been undertaken. It was not the case with all rail operators, he said.

Chris Burchell thanked Network Rail and the Railway Heritage Trust as partners in the project and the station staff for their forbearance during the work.