November, November a month to remember . . .

. . . with quite a few important items to report!

On the 8th of the month, recognising the importance a station might have to the Celtic Manor Resort and International Conference Centre, with its recent acquisition of the ‘Magor Hampton by Hilton’ (now the Ty Hotel), I met with its CEO, Ian Edwards and the Operations V.P., Matthew Lewis. The meeting was extremely productive, with Ian giving unconditional support to the MAGOR campaign and saying that he would raise with Welsh Government and others at a forthcoming transport meeting. We agreed to keep each other informed of developments. The MAGOR group is very appreciative of this valuable support.
On the 13th, Ted Hand attended, by invitation, Network Rail’s ‘Wales Route Investment Review’ group to provide information about Magor and Undy Walkway. Ted felt the meeting, which was attended by representatives from a number of organisations and authorities, went well and the facts he provided were gratefully received.
On the 21st, we had our regular monthly meeting. This month we had input from two important guests-
- Dr. Clive Stainton, who is leading the campaign to open a railway station, Pontrilas Parkway, on the boundary of North Monmouthshire and Herefordshire. Clive outlined the Pontrilas campaign. We agreed that his group and MAGOR shared a common interest and could collaborate to help achieve each other’s aims.
- Also in attendance was Tim James of Griffiths Civil Engineering and Construction. Tim explained that his company is heavily involved with railway station construction, having built Pye Corner Newport and in the process of building Bow Street, Aberystwyth. Tim said that his company was interested in the ‘Magor’ project and would try to help in any way it could.
On the 26th, Ted and I attended the first of the South East Wales Transport Commission workshops at Newport. The workshops are designed to gather stakeholders views following the cancellation of the M4 relief road. This workshop was well attended by a variety of stakeholders from both public and private sectors. The issues resulting from the road cancellation were discussed and many ideas floated to help mitigate the impact of shelving the project. Ted, during one of the group feedback sessions, give an unashamed plug for ‘Magor and Undy Walkway’ (see picture) which was seemingly well received. Indeed, at the end of the event, one of the contributors, Nigel Roberts (Cardiff Parkway Developments), offered to come out to Magor to see our proposed site and discuss matters of mutual interest.
Finally on the 28th, Ted Hand, Cllr. John Crook and I attended Rogiet Community Council’s meeting as an engineer from Monmouthshire County Council (MCC) was presenting on the plans to improve car parking and facilities at Severn Tunnel Junction. The session enabled us to explain how the Magor and Undy station proposal would help to alleviate the traffic load on the access to the station, in particular Station Road. During the session, we learnt that MCC now have the Undy – Rogiet walking / cycle path in their Severn Tunnel Junction improvement plans. So that was good news!