Welcome 2019 . . .

Happy New Year Everyone!

In 2018, the MAGOR group made good progress in its aim of opening a ‘Walkway’ station.  The climax, as I reported last September, was our public engagement – reflecting on our 6 years of progress – attended by and enthusiastically endorsed by our Assembly Member and the most senior people from our County Council, The Future Generations Office and the Cardiff Capital Region City Deal project.  Here, the Chief Exec. of MCC stated the he believed the station was, ‘Now a matter of when not if’!

So, as we were all ‘buoyed-up’ after that event, it was with some considerable disappointment that we learnt, in December, that MCC had not been successful in its bid to Welsh Government for the funding to complete the GRIP 3 report.  We have yet to establish the reasons for this but we have a meeting, this month, with Peter Fox, leader of MCC (and one of our speakers at the event mentioned above) to help us look into this set-back and to identify a way forward (including other funding possibilities).

For us, 2019 will be another year of challenges! The set-back is just one of a number we have experienced in the past and I’m sure we will recover from it.  We rely on your continued support and encouragement, as you showed us recently at the Frost Fayre!  Meanwhile the electrification of the mainline continues – shown here progressing through Magor on New Year’s Day.

I’ll return to the usual end-of-month summary from here on.

Best wishes

Paul