In particular, se criticises Minehead Town Council for supporting the scheme and claims it is making a fool of itself.
I would suggest it is Ms White and not the town council who is making a fool of herself.
The town council is a democratically-elected body of men and women who represent the people of Minehead. Ms White represents nobody, yet seems to have dedicated her life to impeding the progress of any scheme to get a proper train service running into Minehead.
She goes on to talk of what she calls “the highly respected and rail supporting rail industry monthly paper” Railnews putting questions to the Minehead Rail Link Group, which she claims were not answered.
If Ms White looks carefully at the publications she refers to she will see that those questions were answered – the only statistics that couldn’t be accurately provided were those that will need a professional feasibility study done – and that study is precisely what we are advocating.
I would also add that the campaign of the Minehead Rail Link Group has featured positively in several other highly-respected magazines including RMT News – the monthly magazine of Britain’s biggest rail union - where we had a very supportive two page spread, and in Railwatch magazine, the national magazine of rail-user groups.
The fact of the matter is that this rail link will happen sooner or later, whether Ms White likes it or not.
She has nothing to fear from it and it might just be the tonic that the West Somerset Railway needs to bring in more enthusiasts and more volunteers to keep the steam trains running long into the future - and to keep West Somerset from falling off the tourist map and thus preventing any further local economic decline.
David Latimer, Publicity Officer, Minehead Rail Link Group.
MORE LETTERS ON THIS SUBJECT IN THIS WEEK’S FREE PRESS.