The Beam Park Station fiasco illustrates the importance of the GLA’s regional role. The proposed station involves multiple agents. Obviously the railway system is impacted with freight trains and the passenger network affected. Timetables across the entire route will need adjusting. Then there is the economics of the station. Will there be enough additional traffic for the extra costs?

Beam Park is a massive regeneration project, which Johnson’s government shunted into oblivion along with the housing. The station is pivotal for 4,000 houses. Havering always misses its GLA housing targets and the houses would be ‘manna from heaven’.² But: No station, No house building. The ultimate Catch-22.

In a surreal bureaucratic moment, a planning application was made for……..A ticket office (November 2025).³ Not a station: Just a ticket office.

Keith Prince used his six minutes allocation at Mayor’s Question Time to raise the Beam Park Station issue.⁴ Amazingly there was an actual discussion. It’s amazing because most questions aren’t questions at all. They’re tetchy, sarcastic or rude comments. The layout of the chamber doesn’t help (see below).

Keith described the impasse: No station, No housing. The Mayor conceded Keith’s point. He said the non-station was “perverse” “ridiculous” and there was a need to, “get this done.” In a moment of joy for democrats, Keith and the Mayor agreed a temporary solution. And the solution was?

Havering’s new SuperLoop  service is scheduled to begin in Rainham. Keith proposed Beam Park. The Mayor pounced on this positive proposition. The new service would alleviate part of the problem, though it isn’t a solution. It isn’t a ‘done deal’ but it sounded promising. And this is sharp improvement on the normal negativity of the Mayor’s Question Time.

Notes

1 London Assembly (Mayor’s Question Time) | London City Hall Times refer to this webcast

2 Havering faces punishment for failure to reach housing target This is a typical under-shooting and a key reason why so many Havering families are broken up as ‘children’ move to cheap areas in Essex

3 Fresh Planning Application Submitted To Havering Council For Ticket Office For Proposed Beam Park Station. – The Havering Daily

4 From 1 hour 40 to 1:44 The question was: Can you provide an update on the delivery of Beam Park Station? Keith Prince is the GLA councillor for Havering and Redbridge.