Magor & Undy Walkway Station

Read on –

On 26^th June, Monmouthshire County Council met and, at which, Cllr. Frances Taylor, a founder member of MAGOR group, after declaring a conflict of interest, tabled a motion. The motion proposed that MCC write to the Senedd and ask for our Magor station to be given foremost priority in the ‘Burns Delivery’. See item 11 of the minutes of that meeting here. Cllr. Catrin Maby (Cabinet Member for Climate Change and the Environment) proposed an amendment that made the station dependent on the relief line upgrade (potentially slowing the delivery of our station). I believe Cllrs. Crook and Sandles (also members of the MAGOR group) supported the amendment but in the end the motion went through as tabled. Why there was a disparity of views and voting by our 3 councillor members, we have yet to establish, (see below).

Back in July, I reported that our Petition (P-06-1088) to the Senedd for Magor & Undy Walkway to be a ‘quick win’ (well, in terms of the overall ‘Burns Project’) was still on the ‘open petitions’ list. Since then, the committee has met again on 6^th October (minutes). In short, Vaughan Gething MS advised the committee that, as the Burns Commission was now in the ‘delivery phase’, the petition could be closed and the petitioner thanked (which we duly received on 21^st October).

On 10^th October, Phil Inskip and I met with Transport for Wales’s newly appointed Customer Engagement Manager, James Nicholas. We discussed the background of our campaign with him and critically how Magor and Undy Walkway does not rely on a relief line upgrade (as do the other 4 stations).

Phil Inskip and James Nicholas

We also showed him the positions of the old Undy and Magor stations, the track and signalling layouts and the potential association with the Community Hub. James thanked us for bringing him up to speed and appeared to take on board our points. He suggested that we keep in  contact with him on a regular basis.

On 16^th October, the group held its now quarterly meeting at the Golden Lion (thanks for accommodating us Tom and Beccy). We discussed the items above . We noted the Senedd’s closing of the petition and agreed that there was little more to do on that front.  Unfortunately, none of our 3 councillors were able to attend the meeting, which was a shame, as we had hoped to clarify why there was a disparity in views between Cllr. Taylor (Indep.) and Cllrs Crook and Sandles (both Labour) in terms of the wording of the motion put at the MCC meeting.  Consequently, it was agreed that Laurence Hando (Chair) would investigate and report back to the group.

It’s pleasing to note that our supporting Senedd members (John Griffiths, Peter Fox and Peredur Owen Griffiths) and our MP have all, at every opportunity, continued to push for an early delivery of Magor Station (e.g. Catherine Fookes raised it with the Transport Secretary on 16^th July).

Very recently, Cllr. Taylor has provided the group with copies of a range of communications between MCC and other bodies on the subject of the station. Once we have had a chance to analyse these, I will provide a further update.

Paul