Corsham Station Campaign
Fortunately for me, Ruth Hopkinson, the new Chairman of Corsham Town Council, was unable to attend the Mayor-Making Ceremony in Bath a few weeks ago. I offered to attend in her place and enjoyed a most memorable and happy day. Greeted at the Guildhall by the soon- to-be Ex-Mayor, Cllr. Andy Furse, and later when speaking with Cllr. Neil Butters, Chairman of Banes Council, I was delighted that both, without any prompting from me, spoke of their continued support for the reopening of Corsham and the importance to them of this scheme.
It was, therefore, excellent to be able to report to them that Wiltshire Council had included the reopening of three stations, Corsham being one of them, within their list of top ten schemes – out of a possible seventy – to go forward for consideration for funding by the Swindon & Wiltshire Local Economic Partnership. Of course, Swindon Borough Council (whom I understand have three votes to Wiltshire’s two) will have their own priorities, but hopefully our reopening will be seen by them to have benefits in diminishing congestion around Swindon.
We continue to live in hope of the scheme emerging from amongst that list on sustainability grounds. Its success depends on the proposed Bristol/Bath rail service continuing out to Chippenham/Swindon and not being terminated at Bathampton. A preliminary view of the viability of the scheme, undertaken by consultants to the West of England Partnership, was positive.
Anne Lock