Spalding Railway Station: a “community hub”
gordonhunter@email.com January 2010
The Victorian railway station at Spalding, Lincolnshire carries 180,000 passengers a year but most of the three storey building is in mothballs. Now it’s been leased to South Holland Radio. Besides broadcasting, they host a range of services including advocacy, interpretation, (for the migrant workforce), training, volunteering and work opportunities. They plan to refurbish and share the station, bringing new life to an isolated, under-resourced rural community. The conservation-compliant refurbishment will cost over a million pounds but will generate £140,000 annual revenue and deploy lots of staff and volunteers.
Facilitating the development is leading grant maker Lincolnshire Community Foundation (10923218; www.lincolnshirecf.co.uk) working with Network Rail and funders, the “social investment business”.
Project Manager, Ian Watson, sees the potential:
We’re rescuing a fabulous Victorian building and setting up a community business to serve local people. We could do the same | 
