Here we go –
- STG – at the beginning of the month, on behalf of the group, I attended Monmouthshire County Council’s quarterly Strategic Transport Group meeting. Paul Matthews, the CEO, sat in on the first few agenda items. He specifically made a point of the MAGOR group being a great example of a community getting actively involved with the County Council to make improvements for the residents of Monmouthshire. Later in the meeting, I had the chance to challenge the representative from GWR in his belief that they were past the worst of the poor service problems. I suggested that people now wanted ‘regularity, reliability and a seat’ (or at least not to be severely overcrowded) and that ‘shorter journey times’ (which he claimed was a prime requirement) was some ‘hang up’ from the past. A new station will be pointless unless the services to and from it are up to scratch!
- The May Fayre -I have reported previously on it (here) but thanks again for everyone’s support.
- Schools engagement –
Around the middle of the month the MAGOR group, in collaboration with GWR, engaged with our local primary schools. Read Cllr. Lisa Dymock’s report on this exciting initiative by clicking on the picture on the right. - Community Council – On the 24th May, the MAGOR group attended a meeting with the Magor with Undy Community Council (MUCC) at the Baptist chapel. Ted Hand delivered an informative presentation which was well received by the councillors. The council has helped us financially in the past, both with a pledge of £10k towards the GRIP process studies and periodic annual grants that, with money raised from Fayres etc., help with the general running costs of the group; for which we thank them. The council thanked us for the talk and confirmed that they are fully supportive of our aims and efforts.
- Monthly Meeting – Immediately after the council, we held our monthly meeting in the Golden Lion. The main item under discussion was our plan to hold a ‘re-engagement session’ with the community. We decided that we will try to make it a big event and get as many people to it as possible. Objectives will include; to update people with the latest progress, plans, diagrams, designs, ‘metrics’ and the schools engagement. We want to make sure people understand the ‘Walkway Concept’ and how it will work for them (i.e. “What’s in it for me”?) and that they are supportive. We also intend to have the event opened and introduced by a guest speaker. Because we are making this a bigger event than originally intended we have moved it from the end of June to the beginning of September. More news on that in due course.
- Welsh Government – We were pleased to hear that the Welsh Government has (Wednesday, May 23) stated its intention to award the contract to operate the Wales and Borders rail service and the South Wales Metro to KeolisAmey. We have met representatives from the company on a couple of occasions in the past, when they have been impressed with the Magor & Undy Walkway project and its innovative concept. Since the announcement a representative has said that, as soon as the mandatory “10-day standstill period” is completed, they will be very happy to meet us again to discuss our proposals. Our congratulations go to KeolisAmey and we wish them well for the future.
- The Hub – Finally, the MUCH group and MCC are making good progress with ‘The Hub’ (community centre). An application for planning permission has recently been submitted. You can read the latest by clicking on the yellow logo below.
Paul
