Thank you for supporting the open letter; we have been surprised and heartened by the level of support (539 signatories to date). It shows how passionate people are about the railway and how important it is that it's managed responsibly.
We will be closing the open letter to new signatures at 23:59 on Sunday 5th July. Please still encourage people who haven't seen the letter to sign it this weekend. Further details of how we will protect those who have signed the open letter are detailed below.
Our next steps:
We are aware that many people have signed, but opted to remain anonymous. We recognise and respect this decision and will not be passing on your names. Change.org ensures signatories are valid by verifying email addresses. As such we are confident that each signature is valid and will submit a copy of the open letter to the three boards on Monday morning. As a group of active volunteers, we can recognise a large number of those who are WSR volunteers and stakeholders and will provide a numerical breakdown only along with details of the geographical spread.
Questions have been raised as to who George White, the name on the open letter is. As a group of concerned volunteers, we wanted to protect our identities due to the unfair treatment of volunteers who have spoken out in the past. Therefore we selected the name of a famous West Country transport pioneer from the 19th century. When submitting the petition to the three boards one member of our group, Christopher Ruddick, will identify himself in order to provide a point of contact. Christopher has been a volunteer on the West Somerset Railway for over 10 years in the locomotive department and is a member of the WSRA, WSSRT and S and D Trust. Any replies received will be sent on to all signatories via Change.org.
Progress so far:
We are happy to see that since the open letter was first published, the HRA report into the S & D Trust has been partially published. The recommendations are fully supported by the group that launched the open letter.
We feel the approach proposed by the WSRA is particularly worthy of praise, and encourage you to get behind the association so organisational change can be achieved as soon as possible. Joining the WSRA as a member is an excellent way to show your support.
The Partnership Development Group (PDG) met for the first time since 2018 last week, which is a further welcome development. However, the issue of the notice to quit issued to the S and D Trust remains. We still feel this needs to be withdrawn as a matter of urgency. With organisational change now likely, we feel the Washford tenancy issue should be decided by the new charitable body. There is still a lot of bad feeling about this issue and to move forward a degree of compassion needs to be shown by the PLC.
The statements from all 3 organisations are welcome and can be found here:
West Somerset Railway Association (WSRA): https://www.wsra.org.uk/2020/06/29/wsra-response-to-the-paper-peaceful-somerset/
West Somerset Railway PLC: https://www.west-somerset-railway.co.uk/news/detail/wsr-plc-response-to-sections-4-5-of-the-bailey-report
West Somerset Steam Railway Trust (WSSRT): http://www.wssrt.co.uk/2020/06/28/response-to-report-by-john-bailey-on-wsr-organisation/
Once again, thank you for your support. Initial signs of change on the WSR are positive. We ask you now to get behind the HRA report and ensure that peace can come to Somerset and that the WSR is around for future generations to enjoy.
We must maintain the momentum of recent events since the open letter was published and encourage you to write directly to the 3 chairmen expressing your views. PLC Chairman: jon.jones-pratt@wsrail.net, WSSRT Chairman: austinca2@googlemail.com, and WSRA Chairman: mike.sherwood@wsra.org.uk