There was joy - and no little relief - all round at Letchworth Railway Station on Tuesday morning after people power forced an embarrassing climbdown for the Conservative government.

The Tories had decided to axe railway ticket office staff providing important service to our communities up and down the land, including Letchworth train station.

Although the cost-cutting proposals were made by the train operators managing the station offices, they have been broadly understood to have been forced upon the private companies by a government eager to slash rail subsidy budgets.

However, after a public uproar with a ferocity that Nub News understands shocked senior Conservative ministers, the government has backed down in a humiliating U-turn.

Speaking to a Letchworth ticket office employee after the news broke this morning, a source who wished to remain anonymous said: "We're delighted.

"We haven't had official confirmation yet, so until then it's just hearsay - but it is looking good.

"The support we've had from everyone has been really good - thank you to everyone."

The move came after an unprecedented public backlash to the cost-cutting proposals, which attracted more than 750,000 responses in a public consultation, a whopping 99 per cent of which were objections.

The plans to close ticket offices were unveiled in July with only a three-week public consultation - provoking outrage and an immediate extension to the consultation period as the government buckled initially.

According to Nub News' well-placed Westminster insider that we also spoke to for this story, Rishi Sunak's government was stunned by the resounding opposition to the unpopular project - especially in constituencies where the Conservative majority is threatened, in light of their resounding losses in the Mid-Beds and Tamworth by-elections last week.

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