In September Saltford Parish Council sent a copy of its response to WECA’s A4 Bath to Bristol consultation to Jacob Rees-Mogg MP, as well as by email and post to WECA Mayor Dan Norris.
A full copy of SPC’s response to the A4 consultation can be found in SPC’s news article ‘SPC strongly objects to A4 Bath to Bristol consultation proposals‘.
Sir Rees-Mogg responded previously to SPC to state that he viewed SPC’s consultation response as ‘sensible’ and as such had contacted WECA Mayor Dan Norris.
Sir Jacob has contacted SPC again, with a response to the representations he made on behalf of SPC to Mayor Dan Norris. Sir Jacob has stated that he ‘hopes Mr Norris’s email is helpful in confirming that Saltford Parish Council’s response is being considered as part of the public responses submitted‘.
The email from Dan Norris, as shared by Jacob Rees-Mogg, confirmed that the WECA Mayor had received ‘the very detailed and comprehensive 13 page response from Saltford Parish Council‘ and that he is sure that Sir Jacob understands that ‘the project is still at the community engagement and information gathering stage, so it would not be appropriate for me to comment directly on the contents of the letter received from Saltford PC at this time‘. Dan Norris adds in his response to ‘please be assured that their [SPC’s] observations and suggestions are being considered alongside all the public responses being sent in. Further information on developments following the consultation period will be made available in due course‘.
SPC will contact Jacob Rees-Mogg to thank him for making representations on behalf of SPC.
SPC formal complaint to WECA – Jacob Rees-Mogg response:
At its October meeting, Saltford Parish Council resolved to submit a formal complaint to WECA about the conduction and process of the A4 Bath to Bristol Consultation by WECA. This formal complaint was submitted in the hope that WECA would take into account the complaints raised, with a view to make improvements when the next round of consultation is due (expected September 2024). A copy of SPC’s complaint to WECA can be found in our news article at ‘A4 Bristol to Bath Consultation – SPC submits formal complaint to WECA‘.
Saltford Parish Council submitted a copy of the formal complaint to Jacob Rees-Mogg. In response, Sir Jacob wrote to SPC, thanking the Parish Council for keeping him informed about the matter. His letter to SPC stated ‘you make a number of excellent points and I hope that, at the very least, your complaint will improve future WECA consultations‘.
Jacob Rees-Mogg also shared his view about the WECA proposals, saying that they ‘are entirely misguided and I intend to do everything I can to oppose them‘.
As shared by SPC, a resident survey about WECA’s proposals is being carried out by Jacob Rees-Moggs on his website. Sir Jacob stated that at the time of writing his letter (dated 13 October) that he had received over 250 responses to his survey, and that over 93% if those responding disagree (5.1%) or strongly disagree (88.6%) with WECA’s scheme.
The survey being run by Saltford’s MP is currently live at https://www.jacobreesmogg.com/weca-survey and takes about 5 minutes to complete. Alternatively residents can contact Sir Jacob to share their views at https://www.jacobreesmogg.com/contact
Jacob Rees-Mogg ended his letter to say that he would welcome any updates from Saltford Parish Council regarding any developments.
(Images below show a leaflet sent to Saltford residences by Jacob Rees-Mogg with information about his survey about WECA’s proposals).
