Carno Station Action Group

David J Rowlands

Chair

Petitions Committee

National Assembly for Wales

Cardiff Bay, CF99 1NA

Blaenglanhanog

Carno

POWYS

SY17 5JU

                                                                                                July 9th, 2018

Dear Mr Rowlands,

Petition P-05-780 Reopen Carno station

Thank you for forwarding us copies of your letter dated 17^th May 2018 to the Cabinet Secretary for Economy and Transport and of his reply dated 4^th July 2018. Thank you also for inviting us to comment on his response.

We are extremely disappointed that the Cabinet Secretary has completely failed to answer your clearly stated questions as to when, and for what reasons, the Welsh Government revised its policy in relation to directly funding new station developments in Wales.

As we pointed out in our petition background document, there has been a step-change in WG policy. In the 10 years to 2015 it pro-actively funded on average one new station per year from its block grant, but now leaves new stations to the Department for Transport’s New Stations Fund – ie to Westminster. As a result, no new stations have opened in Wales since 2015 and only Bow Street will open in the foreseeable future. Even if another round of the New Stations Fund is announced soon, Wales is extremely unlikely to benefit, because it won 2 out of 10 stations in the first two rounds, despite having only 5% of the population.

We would therefore request that you point out to the Cabinet Secretary that he has not answered your questions and ask him to do so.

Clearly his answer to this question would have a crucial bearing on the prospects for re-opening not just Carno station, but many other deserving candidates as well.

Is the Economy, Infrastructure and Skills Committee going to look into the change in WG policy for funding new stations, as we suggested?

Yours sincerely,

Cllr Jeremy Barnes,

Chairman