Wakefield Council has confirmed that the scheme to extend the station car park has been withdrawn as it is no longer ‘justified’.

The local authority said the use of the car park has not returned to pre-Covid levels.

A plan to build a 167-space car park to improve capacity and prevent unauthorised parking in residential areas by commuters was announced in 2019.

As well as additional parking spaces, the scheme included providing CCTV, enhanced drainage and LED lighting.

Neighbours of the station have complained for years about vehicles being left in surrounding streets because the existing car park is too small.

The extra capacity was to be created on land at Lofthouse Gate Country Park, with passengers accessing the car park from Colliery Approach.

The council said today (March 14) that the scheme has been withdrawn as post-Covid use of the existing car park “has not reached the point that would justify the scheme”.

Matthew Morley, the council’s cabinet member for planning and highways, said: “At the time we began to develop the scheme, a new surface car park at Outwood Station was much needed to create extra capacity.

“Since the pandemic, demand has slowly recovered, however, it is not yet up to pre-Covid levels and so we have decided not to go ahead with the planning application.”

In November last year it was announced that the scheme had been put on hold, along with a number of major road improvement plans in Wakefield, due to spiralling inflation costs.

West Yorkshire Combined Authority “pipelined” dozens of transport schemes across the region to make savings of around £270m.

Other delayed transport schemes in Wakefield include £6m worth of improvements to the A638 Doncaster Road.

The scheme proposes a range of improvements between the junction of Black Road, at Heath Common, and Chantry Bridge.

A project to improve bus journeys, cycling and walking along the A61 Leeds-Wakefield Road is also on hold, along with a similar scheme at Owl Lane.

Outwood Station: Yorkshire railway station's car park extension scrapped as post-Covid passenger numbers fail to recover