tehmina.org

In my effort to campaign for better public transport links between south and north Wiltshire I have not as yet looked in great detail at actual services provided by rail, their cost, convenience and duration (bus to come). I feel it is important to express the problems with current service in this way as for too long those in authority (Wiltshire County Council, First Great Western and Department for Transport) have assumed the service cuts are a very localised issue for Melksham and therefore felt more justified in ignoring it. Well it isn’t. With Wiltshire CC winning its bid to become the only local authority in the county and the majority of county services being based in Trowbridge and increasingly Chippenham, it is more important than ever for transport links between south and north to be improved. Read the rest of this entry »

The new name and dates for the new Wiltshire unitary authority has been decided. It is to be called Wiltshire Council or WC for short.

There will be some increase in the time for the transition and we can actually ‘enjoy’ the result of our democratic actions last May for a little longer. WC will come into effect after elections in May 2009 with the election of about 98 new members, one for each new ward following a Boundary Commission review. However in the meantime the ‘transition cabinet’ will comprise a majority Tory membership dominated by current county councillors (four of eight).

“We are working really hard to involve as many people as possible in this transition. This is a most important change for Wiltshire and we all want to work together to ensure it produces the very best for Wiltshire residents,” said Mrs Scott, who assured members of the council about the transition.

[From WCC Communication Dept press release]

My request for information about getting involved in new citizen scrutiny groups/community panels, sent to the Communications Dept back in July remains unanswered.

Heaven knows (literally) how the Chinese government will administer this one!

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/20227400/site/newsweek/

An e-petition to 10 Downing Street is requesting that Network Rail be designated a public authority so that people may request information from it under the Freedom of Information Act

At the moment it is very difficult to request certain details about the running of the railways from Network Rail owing to technicalities in the way the body is organised. It is a powerful public body in terms of the influence it has on strategy and direction for the railways yet is not a proper public body and cannot be interrogated as such. Why?

Consider signing this petition in order to place pressure on the Secretary of State and Prime Minister to take a closer look at how Network Rail operates.

Awaiting the 0830 Salisbury to Southampton service yesterday (13/08/07) my eye fell upon the front page story of The Times which reported the threatened legal action by First Group against the rail watchdog London TravelWatch. This is the story as reported by the BBC and here are some letters written in response to The Times and published on their online ‘paper’.

TravelWatch have issued a response to the article in The Times in which they say that after a series of talks FGW have agreed to withdraw the threat. Read the rest of this entry »

In her infinite knowledge and wisdom, Hazel Blears, the Secretary of State who decrees on such matters decided to approve Wiltshire County Council’s bid to become a unitary authority, abolishing the five districts of Wiltshire. Apparently they put foward a very good case. I’m sure of course having been in teh job less than a month that she was perfectly able to decide this when the majority of ‘consultation’ from ’stakeholders’ and ‘partners’ indicated otherwise.

I am, at least, now hoping that travelling from north to south and south to north of the county will become a priority especially as so many services are based in mid and north Wiltshire, such as the Wiltshire and Swindon History Centre in Chippenham. Will I have to leave the county to reach there from Salisbury or else take a bus and change in Devizes? Is this really improved access to facilities and services?

To be continued.

David Drew, MP for Stroud (Lab and Co-operative), has tabled an Early Day Motion calling for First Group’s Greater Western’s train services to be returned to the public sector.

This motion is being supported by passenger groups and rail unions.

A short article in the Avon Advertiser (p. 7, 4 July) headlined: “Service is just not the ticket - rail users” covers the response of TravelWatch South West to the National Passenger Survey.

The survey revealed a drop in passenger satisfaction with FGW performance on the ex-Wessex network. TravelWatch have said they want to see improvements in capacity, punctuality and reliability, ticket-buying facilities, handling of delays and ambiance of FGW rolling stock.

According to the survey, overall satisfaction dropped by 8% which is now 5% below average compared to other operators. The biggest changes was the way the operator handled delays, falling in satisfaction by 17%.

Of 31 factors, only 3 have gone up for ex-Wessex services - all are station and train staff related (up by 1-2%).

TravelWatch have said: “Our message to First Great Western is ‘We are watching, but will not be content with just waiting’. We expect the autumn survey results to show improvement on what is, so far, a poor reflection of this new franchise.”

During yesterday’s Commons debate, Robert Key, MP (Cons) for Salisbury contributing the following:-

Oral Answers to Questions - Wales: Train Services (4 Jul 2007)

Robert Key: The fourth prize in a recent charity auction in my
constituency was a pair of First Great Western first class return
tickets to London. I do not think that I dare travel First Great
Western, but if the Minister would like them, I will gladly give them to him.

Did he accept??

Quite by chance, I happened upon this string of comments about the meaning of Tehmina on an (old?) blog called Tam’s Diaries. There were suggestions of all descriptions from people called Tehmina across the world. Some suggestions were: ‘true witness’, ’shred’ or ’scintilla’, ‘healthy’ or ‘insurance’ in Arabic, ‘honest’ in Hebrew, ‘precious of heart’ and originating from south India, and then there was my suggestion which I believe, to my best knowledge, to be true, that it is from old Persian (Pahlavi) or older, and means ’strong woman’.

I think among these descriptions, any ought to do?