13-08-2022:
The ERTA Bedford Forum meeting is 2pm back of Pilgrims Progress tomorrow and all are welcome to join us. I attach the agenda we will aim to discuss around and subject to human and other resources and help, will and do aspire to move forward.
Loads going on, with the east-west rail debate in Bedford.
Our other events are on our website:
https://ertarail.co.
If any enquiries, please contact me on richard.erta@gmail.com
ERTA is clear, we need to marry the inequality and cost of living crisis with care and good stewardship of land and the environment in balance, not play one off with each other whilst bending over backwards to appease a falsehood of a. burning fossil fuel, endless and cheap supply ad infinitum, b. finding £30 billion plus for new roads, whilst defering even ready-to-go rail projects like Bristol-Portishead, let alone failing to protect old rail routes, realignment spaces and select new build rail corridors from development blocking them? Government is not doing this critical spade work, is not even pursuing road-rail equality, rather still wants cake and eat it and plays to the gallery.
How do we take it out of government hands without scenarios of bull dozers turning up at places and people being given hours notices to move out? That is what the Third World is used to, bad enough for them, but we must reject it whilst getting political set ups and individuals with power to inform a solution to these vexations, than compound or short cut proper public health, safety, land use, environment, health care and enough for all is taken into consideration and given due process which does not cost the earth of divide and rule on supressive affordability inequalities. Looking for work costs: time, education, transport, relocation etc.
But the demand is blinkered to this very often, it is left to the individual.
ERTA's public transport aspirations wants more fair play for all and cherish the best, bring up the lower eschalons to enablement and empowerment to engage comprehensively.
Finally, nationwide or local, if you know anyone who may be interested in joining our email loop to get our newsletter, please feel free to recommend them to us or us to them accordingly and pass on our contact details. Thank you.
Pre 13-06-2022
Chris Hyomes is our Northern Area Rep and is building a team to make progress to support and usher these sorts of schemes along. We fully support him and the scheme itself and welcome more news and development to that end. ERTA is growing and doing more, but Governmental shift from road to rail still is not full throttle in policy, process or delivery emphasis it seems.
We need more Executive Committee members to help with things like administration, membership support, marketing events and external work on lobbying MP's, Councils and other outlets and agencies. Please help us do more and enable us to be better.
We all have respective strengths and in some cases and I include myself, weaknesses. I am not overly technical, but am better than some, whereas people who grew up with modern digitality, it is second nature.
Getting younger people 18-60 to join and get involved, to see relevance to their lives now and in the future is a worthwhile challenge to court success with as well. Sadly we live in an ageing population and whilst that generation is welcome too, unless like many organisations, we replenish our teams with new people, we will decline or be hindered in scope. Many are analogue in a digital age and we need to reflect all ages in scope to reflect our relevance to wider society at large.
It takes all to make a team and as long as I remain chairman, hopefully will retain the broad welcome of all members and volunteers to enable ERTA to be as good as it can be.
Thank you all for your contributions and membership is a grand start!
Meanwhile, any support for our southern campaign for restoring a variant of the former Polegate-Stone Cross direct line to shave 20 minutes off end-to-end Ashford-Brighton services and inform more potential operational flexibility for freight and modal shift, we welcome support. Freight of course is not just containers or aggregates, it can be all shapes and sizes from parcels to pallets to other creative applications, it needs nurture and getting the Government to play its part in incentivising, is a crucial part of the jigsaw. What will it take? Likewise, an 'ahead-of-the-game' opposition with a vision, faith and aspiration that has a 'can-do' attitude and approach, not just shadowing or reflecting what others are doing.
I extend a welcome to recent new members and our new Patron. Our website shows what events are coming up: https://ertarail.co.uk/events/ Please tune in and make common cause with us. We can always do more, if we have the team, especially locally living to do it. Lincolnshire, Northamptonshire, South of London to the South Coast, North of England and the West Country are all areas we need to grow more. We are on the case, slowly but surely!
The model we have is first membership as gateway, then area repping to recruit more and identify issues and then forum facilitation to bring people together, assign roles and take the campaigns to where they need to go. Some have a 'you get on with it' remote arm approach, whereas our constitution and website makes clear, the Executive Committee is about enablement, facilitation and ensuring the administration of the association, it is its members who do the external work more. We fill in gaps sometimes, but like an octopus, our members are our ears, eyes, intelligence, roots and branches for forwarding the work in delegated form. Thank you.
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