Email to SWestrans
We are Communities of Beattock and Moffat in Southern Scotland and we believe there is a need to reopen Beattock Station and that this would promote a social, economic and environmental advantage that would greatly benefit this region.
We are committed community leaders who are excited to learn of the Scottish Stations Investment Fund will be open to country wide groups looking to form a partnership approach to getting funding together for new stations. Beattock has such an imposing railway history that locally we have had no difficulty in gathering a steering group comprising of 20 representatives the Beattock, Moffat, Elvanfoot & Crawford area, Community Councils, Community Initiatives, D&G Council, ex Network Rail employees, Local businesses, Tourism organizations and Social enterprise companies. Cross party and cross region support is very evident within the steering group.
Our Aims are:
- To reinstate a railway station at Beattock .
- To increase tourism in the Beattock & Moffat area
- Environmental – access to the rail network to use the train other than a car & bus.
- Accessibility of Job & leisure opportunities in the cities.
- To ensure an integrated transport service runs from Moffat
- Feasibility of a freight facility at Beattock
- Economic regeneration of Beattock & Moffat and surrounding region overarching all of above.
We have had several Steering Group Meetings to set ourselves on the route to achieve these aims. We have written to the Minister Keith Brown to express our interest and we have a website and facebook page up and running. See:
https://www.beattockstationactiongroup.org.uk/ and http://www.facebook.com/BeattockStationActionGroup
We are also about to launch our Consultation Questionnaire a paper version for the localcommunities of Beattock, Moffat, Elvanfoot, & Crawford
We also realise that this is early days and that an applicant approach is not yet clearly laid out but we are keen to access the fund and would be interested to meet with yourself or your staff to discuss this and to have a conversationas soon as possible. There are two D&G Councillors on our group and you will see I have copied this email to them
Look forward to hearing from you
Regards – Martin Brown (chairman)
