Plans to build a new bridge at Grove Park station have been dramatically ditched after objections from neighbours.

The Network Rail plans would have also seen the station's ramps replaced with steps and lifts, but campaigners had argued the ramps should be kept for use by disabled people, pensioners and parents with buggies.

Karen Galloway, 48, of Amble Court Meadows, had launched legal action over the plans, arguing the new footbridge had been proposed with minimal consultation and it would completely overshadow her home and those of her neighbours.

Campaigners also carried out their own survey at the station showing the vast majority of travellers had no idea about the proposed project.

And, last week, Network Rail said the saga had dragged on so long that funding for the project - under the government's Access For All scheme to boost disabled facilities at stations - could no longer be secured.

But ward councillor Coun Suzannah Clarke, who helped organise a 1,700-signature petition, said she still wanted some redevelopment - just not the scheme that was proposed.

She said: "We need to keep the bridge and somehow find a way of putting a bridge in too. Network Rail say that isn't possible but an independent report is needed."

The councillor went on: "This is a once in a lifetime development of our station, this will affect us for another 100 years. We don't want a cheap and cheerful development."

A spokesman for Network Rail, which had originally aimed to complete the work this summer, said: "Between us and the Department for Transport we've taken the decision to suspend the scheme at Grove Park.

"We can no longer deliver it in the agreed time-scale and agreed funding."

He said any further delay could have affected plans for other stations, adding: "It may be revisited in the future."