The much-maligned Beam Park train station project was given a boost with the submission of a planning proposal for a ticket office.
The application was made earlier this month and is for the "erection of a new railway station ticket office on the c2c line, safeguarding the planning permission secured as part of the wider Beam Park development."
Beam Park station's construction, which has been planned since 2002, has been pushed back to at least the end of 2027.
This paper reported earlier this month that a Transport for London (TfL) cyber attack was the latest issue to delay plans for the station.
The planning application for the ticket office was submitted by Countryside Partnerships, who alongside L&Q, are overseeing plans for around 4,000 homes at Beam Park.
In September, Labour MP for Dagenham and Rainham Margaret Mullane wrote to the new government "pressing the case" for the station scheme.
“This (application) is another step in ensuring that the promised Beam Park station is delivered," she said this week.
The station would link the massive housing development, which sits in between Dagenham and Rainham, with central London.
This paper first reported back in 2021 that the station scheme was in doubt over its future.
A then Tory transport minister wrote to former Dagenham and Rainham MP Jon Cruddas saying that the Department for Transport had never given its backing to the project.
Ms Mullane said: "I am meeting on a regular basis with the London Deputy Mayor for Transport, c2c, Network Rail and Havering Council to ensure that the block that was placed on the station by the previous government is removed.
"Residents of the Beam Park development were promised a station with a journey time of 20 minutes into central London and the plans to regenerate the area along the A1306 to Dovers Corner Rainham depend upon the station at Beam Park.
"I will not stop working to make sure the station is delivered.”
A decision on the ticket office application to Havering Council is due by January 13.
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