Reply just received - THANK YOU, Ms de Rhe-Phiipe

Mr Ellis

I attended last night's meeting to hear what was said and to clarify the County Council's position if given the opportunity.  In response to your comments, I would make the following points -

1   I do not accept that the County Council's support for train services in Wiltshire has been "muted".  I consider that the work undertaken by officers and the letters sent by myself and others are probably the most effective way of influencing both Government and train operators.  Your public campaign and our efforts are aimed at the same end and I hope that between us we are successful.

2   Our consultation on the distribution of Local Transport Plan funding is not a "box ticking exercise" but a genuine attempt to explain the use of these funds and reflect public priorities within the constraints laid down. 

3   The budget for the year, which has just been set for the year 2007/08, seeks to achieve best value for money and to reflect elected member and public priorities.  The major priorities are highway maintenance, waste disposal and public transport - in that order.  Your comment about expenditure to prepare road schemes presumably refers to Westbury Bypass.  My response to that is that, firstly, I consider Westbury Bypass to be extremely important both for Westbury and for the economic health of West Wiltshire as a whole.  In any event, such expenditure is classed as "capital" rather than "revenue" budget and would not be available to support public transport.

I hope the above helps to clarify my position.  I also hope that between us we can achieve improvements in the current train services and protect those we do have.

Fleur de Rhe-Philipe

But between us, we have clearly failed over the last 2 years to protect those services that we did have - in other words, this hope for the future is in contradiction to what has happened in the recent past, and so perhaps you need to look at doing things a little differently.  Passengers cannot travel on hope alone.

I note that the budget for the next year has been set, with private transport at the top priority and public transport third, those being stated as the top priority of elected members and also "public priorities".

As a newcomer to campaigning, I'm going to look very clearly at the local transport authority, as well as the service operator and the service specifier, as parties to the decision - especially when each suggests that one of two of the others are either the prime cause and / or key influencers.   At times, of course, some of the suggestions we receive to ask someone else are made just to deflect attention from the key culprits - but sometimes that's a matter of opinion, and sometimes it's hard to tell when it's happening.

Some County Council officers have done sterling work - a lot of sterling work in some cases way over and above what we could have wished for - in support of an appropriate public transport (rail and also road) service. That is hugely appreciated and I want to add my thanks to them, and to the system that puts them into those roles, here.  But - perhaps by the very nature of the beast - that will much appear muted to "Joe Public".   I have been, frankly, amazed at how much publicity our little site here has managed to raise without any official sanction or position, and have felt that we're filling a vacuum that I didn't expect to exist.

Yes, having cleared the air let's move forward to regaining and retaining an appropriate public transport service across andthrough Wiltshire - allowing West Wilts travellers practical access to and from Swindon, Chippenham travellers to and from Salisbury, and so on.    Let's work with Somerset, Mendip, Frome, Swindon, the districts and parishes, First and the DfT.   It CAN be done.   Keith Walton talked the other night how it was being done in Bristol. Cornwall, Devon and Dorset are quoted as  examples too.  I hear the cry of "special case, special case, special case ..." being made.   Let's make Wiltshire a special case too.