Peckham Rye station is one of the busiest stations in Southwark – 2.67Million enterring and leaving during FY10_11 – and the 150th busiest railway station in the UK out of 2,525. Many of these passengers live in East Dulwich ward.

I was delighted that the long term Peckham Visionfor revitalising the centre of Peckham Rye around the railway station has moved several notches closer to becoming a reality.

Both Southwark Council and the Mayor of London are talking about jointly funding the £5M needed to create a new station concourse and new public plaza. This was one our the key Lib Dem manifesto pledges for Peckham in the 2010 local elections.

It will take about a dozen businesses being moved who don’t take advantage of that vast footfall of station passengers but equally will enable many new businesses to be born serving that do serve that footfall. It would also create a new attractive entrance way to people visiting the area and not the seedy run down arcades.

Once this square is established it enables a new Peckham Market behind the station concourse to be constructed. Another step towards making the area flourish.

So the key now is to accelerate from this new cross party political support in actions.

Will Southwark Council regeneration now submit planning permission to get the ball rolling?