White Rose Railway Station Submitted for Planning

The new station in south Leeds will boost public transport networks in the area.

ADP has submitted designs to Leeds City Council for a new railway station at White Rose, in south Leeds. The planning application was submitted by Network Rail of behalf of Munroe K Luxembourg, owner of the adjoining White Rose Office Park, and the West Yorkshire Combined Authority. The aim is that White Rose Rail Station will be operational from the end of 2021.

The proposals include platforms on either side of the Leeds–Huddersfield railway line, served by high-level access walkways approached via three-storey vertical access cores. A listed stone vaulted underbridge, built in the mid-1840s, will be upgraded to provide cross-platform access. The development provides pedestrian, cycle, and vehicular access improvements that enhance local connectivity, providing safe, direct, and convenient routes that are fully compliant with the Equality Act.

Consistent with the Government’s plans to invest in the North, the new infrastructure will deliver local benefit, improving accessibility, acting as a catalyst for regeneration through economic growth, encouraging investment, and creating new jobs for the local community.

The scheme supports LCC’s climate change emergency declaration in March 2019 by encouraging a modal shift from private motor vehicles to public transport. The station will allow for the increased use of local public transport services connecting with bus services that will improve use of local services and create a successful community.

Associated infrastructure includes enhancements to landscaping and ecology through wildflower grasslands, native hedgerows, and tree planting to enhance the wildlife corridor along the railway line. Habitats will be improved through an attenuation pond created from an existing spring-fed stream through the site. Biodiversity will be further encouraged through the use of green roofs to the new station buildings.

Extensive consultation with the local community has taken place, from early inception in summer 2018. This has included presentations, drop-in exhibitions, leaflets, a bespoke website, and consultations with local councillors and council officers.