🚨 The Mayor has promised to "try his best" for March & Whittlesey—let's hold him to it.
Hi everyone,
I am incredibly excited to bring you the biggest update on our campaign since April!
Because of your incredible support, your signatures, and the noise we made on the radio, we have officially cracked through the political wall. I have officially spoken directly to Metro Mayor Paul Bristow about the March-to-Peterborough link.
During our conversation, the Mayor listened to our frustrations about the "handshake" transfer at Whittlesey and the connection anxiety it causes. He gave me his word that he will try his best to do something to resolve this.
The Legal Roadblock—And Our Solutions
I want to be completely transparent about the challenge we are facing. A lot of you have asked: Why can't they just extend the X32 straight into Peterborough tomorrow?
Under the current broken, deregulated system, the law prevents the council from simply extending the X32 over that stretch because it would create direct competition with Stagecoach's commercial 33 route between Whittlesey and Peterborough.
But I didn't just go to the Mayor to talk about the problem—I went to him with two concrete solutions that get around this legal mess:
1. Extend the 33 Back to March: Instead of trying to force the X32 into Peterborough, I proposed that the Combined Authority provide the necessary funding to extend Stagecoach's 33 route all the way back to March, restoring the seamless, single-bus service we used to have.
The Next Steps: Smashed Targets
Mayor Bristow now has our proposals on his desk. He has promised to try his best, but we need to give him the ultimate ammunition to take into his budget and transport meetings. We want him backed by an undeniable wall of local voices so these proposals actually get signed off.
Our Next Target: I want to push our petition past 500 then 1000 signatures so I can send the updated numbers directly back to his office.
How you can help today: Please take 30 seconds to share this link into local Facebook groups, WhatsApp chats, or Nextdoor pages in March, Whittlesey, Eastrea, or Coates.
We have shown them we aren't going away, and we've given them the plan to fix it. Let's keep the pressure up!
Thank you for standing with me,
— Kornel Zielinski