A major milestone was reached today for a multi-million pound scheme to turn derelict land into a car park at one of the busiest commuter hubs in Gloucestershire.

After years of preparation and planning, clearing work began on the vacant site located on Great Western Road in Gloucester that will be transformed into a new car park for the city's railway station.

The ground-breaking scheme is being funded by £2.7million from Great Western Railway (GWR).

The city council acquired the land from the Ministry of Justice and has leased it back to GWR with no cost to the taxpayer.

The new car park will create access into the railway station, directly on to platform four, from the north eastern side of the city.

Speaking at the site today, Gloucester City Council leader Cllr Paul James said: "It's great to see the work starting on the new car park.

"It's taken a lot of effort from all sides to get to this stage and it's a good example of local government and central government and the private sector all working together.

"On the face of it, it just looks like car park but to get to this stage it's involved the Ministry of Justice, Great Western Railway and debates in Parliament.

"It's going to be great for the local community, for businesses and the hospital.

"The area around Great Western Road is going to see a lot of change in the months and years ahead."

Matthew Golton, commercial development director for GWR, said the redevelopment scheme formed part of an improved train service that the company was planning for Gloucester.

"We're here today to mark the start of the work to create a new car park that's going to have 240 additional spaces on the north side of Gloucester station," he said.

"It's a project that's been about two years in the making involving the city council and support from the county and the Department for Transport.

"A lot of this has been with the support of Gloucester MP Richard Graham.

"This project was quite challenging because it involved purchase of land that we didn't own and it's the first time that a passenger train operating company in the UK has bought freehold land, so we're really excited about it.

"The guys are currently on site doing clearing work and by the time we get to June we'll be getting on with it.

"It's not just a car park, it's actually going to be a new entrance to the station on the north side of the station.

"We think it's going to make a real difference to rail users but it's also going to contribute to the welfare of the city and the people who use it for an economic and social point of view.

"That's really important to us, because we're really interested in making sure that we provide solutions for the communities we serve.

"Gloucester's a really important place. We'll have new trains operating to Gloucester from next year and we've got new inter-city express trains that are coming.

"They are being built at the moment and at the back end of 2018 we're going to be operating those trains every hour through to Gloucester and Cheltenham.

"Those trains are bigger than those we have today and will carry about 15 per cent more people than we've got at the moment."

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