A PETITION to re-open Stonehouse’s Bristol Road rail station has reached over 1,000 signatures.

The station was on the Bristol and Gloucester railway between Haresfield and Frocester but closed during the Beeching Cuts in the 1960s.

A petition calling for support from Gloucestershire County Council to re-open the station, as Stroudwater Station, reached the 1,000 names milestone this month.

Stonehouse Town Council has been leading the campaign and Cllr Carol Kambites said: “There are 55,000 people in the Stroud Valleys who have no direct link to Bristol. At the moment commuters travel by car to the Cam and Dursley station to get the train into Bristol, which would not be necessary should the plan be approved.

“We have had great local support for our online petition, which is even more impressive as the petition is not that easy to sign up to, as those who want to have to register on the county council’s website.

“We have had a lot of local and broader support, not just in Stonehouse but from across the Stroud Valleys.

“It’s great to have reached the 1,000 signature milestone, this campaign has been going on for a long time so it’s great to get somewhere with it.”

Re-opening the station was proposed in 2017. It is a short distance from the Stroudwater Navigation canal and could help boost tourism.

It is hoped that it will have a great economic benefit to the Stroud Valleys and provide better links for residents who work and study in Bristol, especially with the Great Oldbury development creating over 1,000 new homes in the near future.

Stroud MP Siobhan Baillie, Stroud District Council, locally-based businesses such as Ecotricity and Stonehouse Court Hotel are amongst those backing the petition.

If Gloucestershire County Council agrees to back the plan, discussions will start with the train operating company Great Western Railway to decide which services would be available.

Sign the petition at bit.ly/3hpzXit