Joint Meeting 23rd March 2022

Beattock Station Action Group was invited to a virtual meeting convened by Emma Harper MSP on 23rd March. This meeting was convened and chaired by Scott Mc Ivanney , Emma Harper ‘ PA . There should have been a mixture of politicians, civil servants and campaign groups present, but due to circumstances beyond our control,

( it was the day P&O  announced mass redundancies ) no politicians were present , and no civil servants , eg Swestrans and Transport Scotland. However, we did have a positive meeting with the campaign groups from Thornhill and Eastriggs, and it was good to finally meet like minded individuals from our part of Scotland. We are all in broad agreement on topics like the future of the STAG reports, for instance, will they have to be updated ?

Jenny Gilruth, the Transport Minister feels that, while we are looking at the long term we should present a united pressure group for the South of Scotland , in order to keep an emphasis on this region. At the same time Jenny Gilruth has committed to Transport Scotland having presence at these meetings.

It was agreed  to have a joint pre – meeting with the other campaign groups and Swestrans and we made a provisional date of 20th April 2022. Scott Mc Ivanney proposed a meeting with Transport Scotland , probably in June, after the local elections have taken place agreed.