A COMMUNITY group campaigning for lifts to be installed at Pokesdown Station has been rejuvenated thanks to a song produced about the ongoing issue.

A demonstration was held outside of the train station, attended by residents and ward councillors expressing their frustration and annoyance at the slow speed of work at the station.

Since opening a Kimcell office in the Pokesdown area, business entrepreneur Gordon Fong has set about generating support for the campaign.

Gordon approached Southbourne resident Simon Fernand, frontman for comedic band Plastic Jeezus, to produce the song with his ukulele as part of the Uplift Pokesdown campaign.

Simon said: “When Gordon stepped in and wanted to reinvigorate the campaign for lifts at Pokesdown Station, he got in touch with me about doing a song about it.

“I uploaded it to my fan page, and it is had a few thousand views and Gordon uploaded it to Twitter and that has also had a few thousand views, so it is doing well in the respect.

“After watching the video, a local council has stepped in to ask about how they can sort out funding for the project, so in terms of starting a conversation, the reaction has been very positive.”

The campaign to get lifts at the station has been running since 2011. However, little work has been done to the station since a campaign push last year.

The video has received thousands of views across Facebook, twitter and YouTube, and the issue has once again been put forward to managing director of South Western Railway Mark Hopwood by a SWR action group.

The song has also revived the existing campaign to improve Pokesdown Station and install lifts for disabled access which has been going on since 2011.

Over 30 people gathered on the grass area outside of Pokesdown Station with placards on Friday morning.

Boscombe resident Mog Morrison said: “For years now, we have had people coming down from London with suitcases, pushchairs and wheelchairs who get off the train and are left stunned that there isn’t a lift

“There are a lot of people locally with wheelchairs, bikes or pushchairs that have stopped using that station and take a taxi to Bournemouth in order to get onto the platform.

“It is absolutely ridiculous.”

Ward councillor of Boscombe East & Pokesdown Cllr Andy Jones added: “To have members of the community and a large number of visitors not able to access the platform is just unacceptable.

“They haven’t done the work which they said would be completed in December, they have provided vague assessments of the station and there is no project plan

“All they have been doing is kicking the can down the road. They have broken their contract so they should receive a penalty for this.”

South Western Railway held a meeting on Wednesday July 1 in which BCP Council Leader Vikki Slade and Portfolio Holder for Transport and Infrastructure Cllr Andy Hadley attended.

The meeting established the next steps for the project, as well as opportunities to improve the customer experience at the station and improve integration with the community and attendees to AFC Bournemouth matches.

A spokesperson for South Western Railway, said, “We recognise that there have been challenges in the process of developing and delivering this project at Pokesdown Station and this has taken longer than we would have liked. However, our goal remains to deliver a scheme which benefits the local community and our passengers.

“We plan to continue to hold discussions with the council, Department for Transport, the local MP and local stakeholders to identify the best way forward.”