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TransWilts Community Rail Partnership - formally constituted

Archive - Originally posted on "The Horse's Mouth" - 2013-09-01 08:12:36 - Graham Ellis

Yesterday's Special General Meeting for the formalisation under a constitution of the Community Rail Partnership went just about perfectly. A dozen of us met for an update on the what's been going on, to formalise our position so that we have our groundrules and everyone knows where we fit in, and then to discuss how we go about all the potential things we may (or may decide not) to do, and what the timescales and priorities are.


That's a picture of the group - a useful reminder and publicity and all the twelve are key, committed and knowledgeable or influential (or both). The really important people are those who are going to use the probable new service.


At the formal meeting, the draft constitution was discussed. It has been out for review for over four weeks, and just two matters were raised (and minuted - to follow); this is something that needs to be got right early on, and the matters - which are not showstoppers - will be considered and raised as amendments for the AGM, which is penciled in for Friday February 7th at County Hall in Trowbridge, hosted by Wiltshire Council.

Adoption of the constitution was proposed by Peter Blackburn (Federation of Small Businesses) and seconded by Mike Greedy (First Great Western). It was unanimously carried. The constitution may be downloaded [here]. It was proposed by Mike Greedy (First Great Western) that the current interim officers be elected to continue in their roles until the formal AGM. They are Sion Bretton, Chair (Melksham Railway Development Group), Peter Blackburn, vice chair (FSB), Phil McMullen, secretary (also secretary of Westbury and Melksham Community Area Partnerships), Chris Hankin, Treasurer (Severnside Rail Parnership), and that Graham Ellis (Chamber of Commerce) remain in the role of press and publicity. The proposal was seconded by Paul Johnson, Chair of Swindon and Wilshire Local Enterprise Parnership (LEP) and passed unanimously.

All present will form the initial steering group to represent the various bodies involved in what is expected to be a very busy few months ahead, with the option to co-opt additional members; we noted a number of apologies for absence due to other commitments at this time of year, and will be looking to add to the group to ensure we have as wide a coverage as practical and can provide a consolidated conduit between the community, the local authorities, the LEP and the train operators and rail industry. Steering group pictured - Phil McMullen, Dominic McKeown, Mike Greedy, Duncan Hames MP, Eddy Watts, Lee Fletcher, Sion Bretton, Paul Johnson, Graham Ellis, David Philips, Peter Blackburn, John Money. Many are organisational representatives, but we have the correct key representatives here. There is a coordinated transport meeting taking place on 19th October 2013 at the Laverton in Westbury.

After lunch, we moved on to informally discuss a very wide range of issues where the TWCRP may get involved. The agenda at [here] gives an idea of some of the topics - minutes to follow, with much more detail. In particular marketing, surveys, web / mobile app information, co-ordination with LSTF and www.connectingwiltshire.co.uk which launched tomorrow, station groups (with a question of co-ordination with Swindon and also other connecting [Wiltshire] stations not covered by any CRP). The meeting closed at 15:00, in time for the 15:21 train ;-)

It's excellent to see that everyone is pulling together - moving from a mode of campaigning and to some extent defending against that campaign to full co-operation to providing a service that the whole group believes can and will work well if we get all the key issues right. And that involves a co-ordinated dialogue between us all, which I look forward to as a very active but ever-more conventional CRP looking to promote the best use of a very saleable and to-become existing train service that provides real economic benefit to the community it serves.