Welcoming our new Board members
At the July meeting of our Western Gateway Board, we welcomed three new members: Cllr Ed Plowden, Bristol City Council; Cllr Jon Andrews, Dorset Council; and Cllr Tamara Reay, Wiltshire Council.
We thank our outgoing members – Cllr Don Alexander, Cllr Ray Bryan and Cllr Caroline Thomas – for all their support, and we look forward to working closely with our new and existing Board members to continue our progress.
The Western Gateway STB Board now comprises:
- Cllr Jon Andrews, Dorset Council: Cabinet Member for Place Services, Liberal Democrats
- Cllr David Gray, Gloucestershire County Council: Cabinet Member for Environment and Planning, Conservatives
- Cllr Andy Hadley, Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole Council: Cabinet Member for Climate Response, Environment and Energy, Poole People Group
- Cllr Ed Plowden, Bristol City Council: Chair of the Transport and Connectivity Policy Committee, Green Party
- Cllr Tamara Reay, Wiltshire Council: Cabinet Member for Transport and Assets, Conservatives
- Cllr Manda Rigby, Bath and North East Somerset: Cabinet Member for Highways, Liberal Democrats
- Cllr Chris Willmore, South Gloucestershire Council: Cabinet Member for Planning, Regeneration and Infrastructure, Liberal Democrats
- Cllr Hannah Young, North Somerset Council: Executive Member for Highways and Transport, Labour
- Cllr Kye Dudd, Representing West of England Combined Authority, Labour
At the July Board meeting, we were pleased to elect a new Chair, Cllr Manda Rigby, and Vice Chair, Cllr Chris Willmore, and approve our Business Plan for 2024/2025.
This plan sets out our work packages for the financial year that will ensure we can work with the new government and ministers to align our vision of transport for the Western Gateway as set out in our Strategic Transport Plan with the five key priorities the new Transport Secretary Louise Haigh has outlined:
- improving performance on the railways and driving forward rail reform
- improving bus services and growing usage across the country
- transforming infrastructure to work for the whole country, promoting social mobility and tackling regional inequality
- delivering greener transport
- better integrating transport networks
We look forward to a busy and exciting period ahead, working with the Department of Transport, our constituent authorities, our partners and all our stakeholders.
Following the publication of our transport plan, we are now working on producing a list of strategic investment priorities for our region’s key transport projects.
This list will go out to consultation to allow all residents, businesses and communities in the region to have their say on how these priorities should be developed, and we look forward to keeping you updated with our progress.
