Good news!
Having written to, and then blogged about, and then tweeted Greater Anglia about the mystery of the missing machine , the Greater Anglia Partnerships Manager Geraint Hughes emails me to tell me
“Just to confirm that the Woodbridge ticket machine is due to be installed and commissioned within the next 2 weeks.”
Lobbying works .
Addendum: For those interested, the EADT coverage of the machine’s arrival is here
Four months back, when I attended the launch of the East Suffolk line hourly service, I took the opportunity to ask Greater Anglia Customer Service Director Andrew Goodrum where the proposed ticket machines at Woodbridge station were and when they were going to arrive?
(This was – and remains – a very important question. SCDC had recently decided to close the Woodbridge Tourist Information Centre in the teeth of opposition from a large number of residents, myself, and all of Woodbridge Town Council, apart from Cllrs Holdcroft, Mulcahy and Sayle . These three were in favour despite the fact that older Woodbridge residents would lose ticketing facilities. Since then the Centre has been closed and the ticketing facilities have been lost).
I blogged on Mr Goodrum’s helpful reply a couple of days afterwards: “You will be pleased to know there is absolutely no need to lobby for these [machines] as they have been purchased a while back. They are not yet installed as they need weatherproofing because they are designed for indoor use.”
So, have these machines arrived? No they jolly well have not. And surely it cannot take four months to waterproof a machine, however lovingly you do it!
A week ago I wrote to Mr Goodrum:
You may remember we met at the launch of the hourly service from Lowestoft to Ipswich, back on December 9th. I was – and continue to be – a huge fan and supporter of this service which is so useful for so many of us in Suffolk Coastal. I use it regularly myself – both to reach Ipswich and to travel north.
On the day of the launch I took the opportunity of bending your ear about the proposed ticket machine which Greater Anglia was due to install on the platform at Woodbridge. You assured me that the machine had actually already been purchased but that there would be a delay in installation as it would need to be weatherproofed.
This was four months ago. I do hope you can tell me that installation is now imminent – and indeed give me an e.t.a. – as I have a number of constituents who are anxious to use it.
He has not – so far – replied. I am currently following the matter up further
PS This does not solve the equally strange conundrum of the story in the EADT a day or two before the launch. Our local MP Therese Coffey, and her assistant, Woodbridge Town Council’s deputy mayor (the aforementioned Cllr Mulcahy) were described as having “joined forces and launched a campaign to urge train operator Greater Anglia to install an automatic ticket machine at the station“.
How could they launch a campaign to urge the company to install something that the company had already bought and was already planning to install?
It just doesn’t make sense!
At the end of May I will be doing the Suffolk Challenge Walk – which involves walking 66 miles from Felixstowe to Lowestoft over 5 days – to raise money for Woodbridge’s wonderful local youth charity Just 42. I’m fit but fat and I’ll get blisters – but it will be worth it. Just 42 are a wonderful charity. Please help me to help them by sponsoring, if you can. My Just Giving site is http://www.justgiving.com/Caroline-Page1. I know how tight times are, but every pound helps!
Just 42 work with 460 young people every week in 18 locations and 26 clubs based in Woodbridge and 9 outlying villages. In fact they cover in total 400 sq miles of rural countryside – bringing mobile youth clubs out to places where there is no transport whatsoever. The young people they support deal with some big problems : disaffection, rural isolation, bullying, low self-esteem, special educational needs, drug/alcohol abuse, complex family issues, school exclusion and criminal behaviour. The results and outcomes are spectacular: engaging 2,300 different young people per year through weekly clubs, sports coaching, mentoring groups and school assemblies. Just 42 embrace the most disadvantaged or excluded, and those with special needs, giving support, advice and help to encourage (often very needy and disadvantaged) young people to succeed and fulfil their potential.
In 2011/12 it was members of Just 42′s Off the Streets club (and in particular Cydonie and Trevor) who argued so persuasively and effectively at Suffolk’s Full Council and Scrutiny meetings for the return of the Explore card (see link).
And Just 42 is not only doing this well and effectively – it is doing it on a shoestring! After SCC’s recent cuts Just 42 remains the only such group left in our part of Suffolk – and only because SCC had never historically funded them in the first place! Just 42′s valuable work is funded entirely by donations.
Please dig deep – and help them carry on helping the young people in rural Suffolk.
The Suffolk Challenge walk is a series of five linked walks that are part of the Suffolk Walking Festival (details here). Try and join one if you can, and discover the glories of the Suffolk countryside. Or better, join with me, and Just42’s fundraiser, Julia Hancock (not to mention her dog) and walk some or all of the challenge with us.