Press articles

Coming events

Transport Plans

<< Main News

GW Franchise

Traffic flows

Petitions

Meeting notes

Local Government

In order to understand what obstacles are in the way of the railway being re-instated, it is useful to understand how local government is organised, and who is in control of what.

Local Councils

At the lowest level are the local town and parish councils e.g. Portishead Town council, Easton-in-Gordano Parish council and Portbury Parish council. A separate body, the Gordano Councils Transport Group, comprising councillors representing the local town and parish councils in the area, looks at transport issues in general but particularly supports the reopening of the railway.

Unitary Authorities

At the next level are District Council or Unitary Authorities. The railway runs through areas covered by two Unitary Authorities - North Somerset Council and Bristol City Council. The Severn Beach branch line, with which we propose to link, also runs partly through the South Gloucestershire Council area.

West of England Partnership

The West of England Partnership is a partnership of the 4 local councils from the former Avon county area, (i.e. Bristol City Council, North Somerset Council, South Gloucestershire and Bath & North East Somerset) which was set up to address jointly matters that need to be dealt with at a ‘Greater Bristol’ or ‘sub-regional’ level, such as transport, housing, planning, tourism etc.

However, this body is subservient to the South West Regional Assembly (see below) and is unhappy about the number of houses proposed. Chairman of the Partnership, Mike Roe said in an Evening Post report 9 March 2006 - "The councils feel they are being bounced into higher numbers than they feel comfortable with." See also www.westofengland.org

South West Regional Assembly

This unelected government quango is the designated Regional Planning Body and has produced a document called the Regional Spatial Strategy (RSS) which creates a blueprint for the way in which the region grows during the next 20 years. Though it covers transport issues, theer is only one line on heavy rail! It recommends building 92,500 houses, much in green belt land. (This document was open for public comment until 30 August 2006.). See Evening Post comment ‘Curb this unelected Assembly’ - 11 March 2006 and also Evening Post article 22 Aug 2006. But the real power appears to be with the Government Office for the South West which ultimately dictates the overall policy (see below). South West Regional Assembly web site.

Government Office for the South West

GOSW represents Central Government in the South West region, and thus dictates overall policy. Government Office for the South West - web site

See also Transport Plans