Hello Everyone
Early last week (after nearly two weeks of waiting) Great Western Railway replied to my e-mail of Tuesday 2nd December requesting an appointment to hand deliver the petition.
Unfortunately they have replied saying ‘It’s not necessary for you to go to the trouble of hand delivering your petition.’ Instead they suggest I e-mail it or post it. I’ve been upset and hurt by their response as I feel they don’t want to talk to me and are trying to sweep things under the carpet as much as possible - I’ve worked hard on the petition and still have significant concerns about staffing at Yeovil Pen Mill station. I feel they should be taking things a bit more seriously and are being a bit insensitive.
However I’m aware that I cannot force GWR to let me hand deliver the petition. I was shocked they suggest I e-Mail it as obviously the petition contains people’s personal data such as full names, the town/county they live in and postcodes. It would fly in the face of any Data Protection training I’ve ever received to e-Mail it to them. Therefore the petition will stay open until Sunday 4th January and I will then post it by tracked delivery soon after - I see no point in posting it to them just before Christmas as it is then likely to sit in an empty office for two weeks while people are likely to be on leave. GWR have said they will acknowledge receipt of the Petition when they receive it. Obviously I would like a bit more than this such as some kind of response - I think the 330 people who’ve signed this deserve this but unfortunately I’m doubtful we will get this.
I am also concerned that GWR have not posted on their website or the National Rail website what the staffing hours will be for Yeovil Pen Mill station over the next couple of weeks during the Christmas period. Obviously it’s important the general public have this information especially disabled people. I am aware they have posted staffing hours for this week for other GWR ran stations on the websites but not Yeovil Pen Mill. Perhaps this has been missed somehow.
Apologies this has been quite a long update. If you got to the end thank you for reading 😊.
Thank you again for all your support.
Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to you All.
Kath