The front page and page 9 of today’s Hawick Paper (9 January 2025) are devoted to a lengthy piece about what is going on with the Borders Railway feasibility study. Campaign for Borders Rail has tried to find out what progress is being made, but so far without much success.
Both CBR’s Marion Short and Cllr Clair Ramage reiterate the frustration of the Campaign and the public at large due to the lack of any concrete info.
However, there are several pointers in this article which hint at what may actually have been happening.
Cllr Watson McAteer affirms that Scottish Borders Council is committed to the project and is working closely with Turner & Townsend. He says that this first phase is an essential and highly sensitive element which sees the project having to meet stringent requirements set out in HM Treasury’s Green Book.
Cllr Annette Smart understands that ‘initial work’ has already been carried out.
The Scottish Government says it is “committed to keeping the community updated”. But if so, where and when?
The UK Government’s Department for Transport is “working closely with all local parties to finalise the study’s scope”. That sounds like something has actually been happening, though the public haven’t been updated yet.
Cllr McAteer also adds that the ‘external stakeholder group’, which was appointed to monitor and support the public, is meeting this month, with increasing public awareness on the agenda.
So we look forward to receiving some concrete information in the near future.
Buy a paper copy of the newspaper today or subscribe online to read the full article. https://thehawickpaper.co.uk/…/the-hawick-paper-friday…/
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