PRESSURE must be applied in order to have Northwich train station restored to its former glory, say local councillors.

When the roof dramatically collapsed at the Victorian-era station on Tuesday morning, it was a miracle nobody was killed, with Cllr Sam Naylor saying 'we got away with that by the skin of our teeth'.

With the cause of the collapse not yet known, safety measures have been taken to allow the station to re-open to passengers, which councillors agree was the number one priority.

As well as Cllr Sam Naylor, fellow Northwich councillors Andrew Cooper, as well as Kate and Bob Cernik are working closely with the town's MP to ensure the station's future is the next big aim.

Cllr Cooper said: "It’s hard to overstate just how close a call this was.

"Only an hour or two earlier, the station platform would have been full of children making their way to school and commuters going into Manchester and I hope that the Rail Accident Investigation Branch and the Office for Rail and Road will be able to quickly establish the cause so that we can have confidence that this couldn’t happen elsewhere on the network.

"Rightly, Northern’s immediate focus has been on ensuring public safety and getting to a position where trains can call again at Northwich.

"Turning to the future, we’re really keen to ensure there’s a commitment there to re-instate a permanent station that provides the same or better facilities to travellers as we had before, and a timescale for when residents can expect it to occur.

"The original station was a much-loved building and was locally listed.

"We’ve asked if Northern can retain as much of the original brickwork as possible so that at least the option is there to reuse and incorporate the original features, perhaps in a blend of old and new."

As part of the work carried out to make the building safe, the front gable end of the station was taken down, including the iconic brickwork, which date back to the station's origins and as well as restoring as much of that as possible, there is no doubt that a better equipped and accessible station is essential.

Cllr Cooper added: "Most importantly, whilst there is building work happening anyway, it presents a perfect opportunity to finally resolve the accessibility issues that we have long sought a solution for.

"Cheshire West and Chester Council commissioned an options study in late January to look at how this could be done, and with this work nearing completion the blueprint will soon be there to make it happen – we just need the government to step up and make the investment.

"It’s early days yet, but we’ll keep pursuing this until we get the commitments in place to make this right."

Cllr Sam Naylor said he wanted to see the building restored to its former glory, as much as that is possible.

He said: "For safety reasons, we understand what had to be done to make it safe and get it back open.

"But we know what happens far too often with these things.

"You get one of these plastic shelters on a temporary basis and it's there for ten years.

"We want that building, as far as possible, restoring, with the material that's there.

"It's an iconic and historical Northwich building.

"The main priority was to obviously make sure the building was safe enough to allow the station to get the station back up and running.

"But after that, it's about putting pressure on to get a proper restoration."

Chris Pye, Network Rail infrastructure director for the North West, said: “We thank passengers for their patience while we’ve been working to make Northwich station safe.

"The damaged building has been partially demolished and hoardings have been put up so the station could reopen to passengers.

"We’ll work with local groups when the time comes to rebuild.

"We await the findings of an independent investigation by our regulator the Office of Rail and Road into what caused the incident."